Structural features of the kringle domain determine the intracellular degradation of under-gamma-carboxylated prothrombin: studies of chimeric rat/human prothrombin.

Vitamin K antagonists such as warfarin inhibit the vitamin K-dependent gamma-glutamyl carboxylation during protein processing and block the secretion of under-gamma-carboxylated prothrombin (FII) in the rat but not in the human or bovine. Under-gamma-carboxylated prothrombin is also secreted from warfarin-treated human (HepG2) cell cultures but is degraded in the endoplasmic reticulum in warfarin-treated rat (H-35) cell cultures. This differential response to warfarin has been shown to be determined by the structural difference in the proteins rather than by the origin of the cell line. When recombinant rat prothrombin (rFII) and human prothrombin (hFII) were expressed in a transformed human kidney cell line (HEK293), secretion of rFII but not hFII was drastically decreased in response to warfarin. To determine the structural signal required for this differential response, chimeric cDNAs with the propeptide/Gla domains, kringle domain, and serine protease domain exchanged between rFII and hFII were generated (FIIRHH and FIIHRR, FIIRRH and FIIHHR, FIIRHR and FIIHRH) and expressed in both warfarin-treated HEK293 cells and HepG2 cells. The presence of the hFII kringle domain changed the stability of rFII to that of hFII, and the rFII kringle domain changed the stability of hFII to that of rFII. The kringle domain therefore is critical in determining the metabolic fate of under-gamma-carboxylated prothrombin precursors during processing. Prothrombin contains two kringle structures, and expression of additional rFII/hFII chimeras (FIIHrhH and FIIHhrH, FIIRrhR, and FIIRhrR) was used to determine that the first of the two kringles plays a more important role in the recognition process.