Members of the bone morphogenetic protein-1/tolloid (BMP-1/Tld) family of metalloproteinases, also known as procollagen C-proteinases (PCPs), control multiple biological events (including matrix assembly, cross-linking, cell adhesion/migration and pattern formation) through enzymatic processing of several extracellular substrates. PCP activities on fibrillar procollagens can be stimulated by another family of extracellular proteins, PCP enhancers (PCPE-1, PCPE-2), which lack intrinsic enzymatic activity. While PCPs have multiple substrates, the extent to which PCPEs is involved in the processing of proteins other than fibrillar procollagens is unknown. In the experiments reported here, PCPE-1 was found to have no effect on the in vitro BMP-1 processing of procollagen VII, the procollagen V N-propeptide, the laminin 5 ␥2 chain, osteoglycin, prolysyl oxidase, or chordin. In contrast, PCPE-1 enhanced C-terminal processing of human fibrillar procollagen III but only when this substrate was in its native, disulfidebonded conformation. Surprisingly, processing of procollagen III continued to be enhanced when essentially all the triple-helical region was removed. These and previous results (Ricard-Blum, S., Bernocco, S., Font, B., Moali, C., Eichenberger, D., Farjanel, J., Burchardt, E. R., van der Rest, M., Kessler, E., and Hulmes, D. J. S. In recent years, it has become clear that members of the tolloid family of metalloproteinases (BMP-1, 1 mTld, mTLL-1, mTLL-2) are key players in morphogenesis through their ability to control and synchronize the processing of multiple extracellular substrates (1-25). Also called procollagen C-proteinases, tolloid proteinases trigger collagen fibril formation in the extracellular matrix (26) by cleaving the C-propeptide regions from the major fibrillar procollagens (I, II, and III). They are also involved in precursor processing of the minor fibrillar collagens V and XI, necessary for the regulation of heterotypic fibril assembly, in both the N-and C-propeptide regions (8,15,17,19,23,27). Tolloid proteinases also cleave precursor forms of small leucine-rich proteoglycans such as biglycan (13) and osteoglycin (24). While some of these proteoglycans have been shown to modulate the kinetics of assembly as well as fibril diameter (28), functional differences between mature and precursor forms are not yet clearly established (24). Biglycan is also important for bone formation (29) and more recently, dentin matrix protein-1, a protein involved in mineralization, has been found to be a substrate for tolloid proteinases (22).Another important function early attributed to tolloid proteinases is the maturation of the precursor form of lysyl oxidase (LOX) (5, 30), the enzyme responsible for the stabilization of collagen and elastin networks through the formation of covalent cross-links. This tolloid-dependent processing has recently gained in significance with the demonstration that the cleaved propeptide of proLOX accounts for the ras-recision gene activity of this protein (31). In addition, ...

Procollagen C-proteinase enhancer (PCPE) is an extracellular matrix glycoprotein that binds to the C-propeptide of procollagen I and can enhance the activities of procollagen C-proteinases up to 20-fold. To determine the molecular mechanism of PCPE activity, the interactions of the recombinant protein with the procollagen molecule as well as with its isolated C-propeptide domain were studied using surface plasmon resonance (BIAcore) technology. Binding required the presence of divalent metal cations such as calcium and manganese. By ligand blotting, calcium was found to bind to the C-propeptide domains of procollagens I and III but not to PCPE. By chemical cross-linking, the stoichiometry of the PCPE/C-propeptide interaction was found to be 1:1 in accordance with enzyme kinetic data. The use of a monoclonal antibody directed against the N-terminal region of the C-propeptide suggested that this region is probably not involved in binding to PCPE. Association and dissociation kinetics of the Cpropeptide domains of procollagens I and III on immobilized PCPE were rapid. Extrapolation to saturation equilibrium yielded apparent equilibrium dissociation constants in the range 150 -400 nM. In contrast, the association/dissociation kinetics of intact procollagen molecules on immobilized PCPE were relatively slow, corresponding to a dissociation constant of 1 nM. Finally, pN-collagen (i.e. procollagen devoid of the C-terminal propeptide domain) was also found to bind to immobilized PCPE, suggesting that PCPE binds to sites on either side of the procollagen cleavage site, thereby facilitating the action of procollagen C-proteinases.Bone morphogenetic protein-1 (BMP-1) 1 and other tolloidrelated metalloproteinases (1, 2), also known as procollagen C-proteinases (PCPs), have recently been shown to be involved in the control of a variety of morphogenetic events during development and tissue repair. These include: (i) the deposition of collagen fibrils in the extracellular matrix following the processing of procollagen propeptides (3-6); (ii) dorsoventral patterning (7-10) through the cleavage of the growth factor inhibitors chordin and SOG; (iii) collagen and elastin crosslinking by the processing of the inactive precursors of lysyl oxidases (11, 12); and (iv) adhesion/migration of epithelial cells by the cleavage of laminin 5 chains (13-15). The activities of PCPs on procollagen substrates may be stimulated up to 20-fold by another glycoprotein of the extracellular matrix, procollagen C-proteinase enhancer (PCPE) (16 -19), which lacks intrinsic proteinase activity. Similarly, in the case of chordin and SOG, the protein TSG or its homologues stimulates cleavage by tolloid proteinases (20, 21), thus raising the possibility that PCP processing of different substrates might be specifically regulated by distinct enhancer proteins.Both tolloid proteinases and PCPE are multidomain glycoproteins containing multiple copies of the so-called CUB domain (22), a protein module common to several extracellular and plasma membrane-associated...