The multifunctional membrane protein CD36 is expressed on platelets, mature monocytes and macrophages, microvascular endothelial cells and mammary epithelial cells. The exact physiological function of this glycoprotein is unclear. In order to determine the number and pattern of disulfide bridges, CD36 was purified from bovine milk fat globule membranes. The purification procedure involved Triton X-114 extraction, DEAE-Sepharose ion-exchange chromatography and reverse-phase chromatography on a Resource RPC column. The CD36 preparation was used for characterization of the disulfide bridge pattern, which was determined by peptide mapping, amino acid sequence analysis, and matrix-assisted laser-desorption ionization/time of flight mass spectrometry. We have found that there are no free cysteines in CD36 and that the six centrally clustered cysteines are linked by disulfide bonds, Cys242ϪCys310, Cys271ϪCys332 and Cys312ϪCys321, resulting in a 1-3, 2-6 and 4-5 arrangement of the disulfide bridges. These data are in agreement with a model where the protein is oriented so that it has two short intracellular segments (residues 1Ϫ6 and 461Ϫ471) and two transmembrane domains (residues 7Ϫ28 and 439Ϫ460), and with four cysteines expected to be acylated placed near the intracellular side of the membrane. The remaining part of CD36 is extracellular, comprising eight glycosylations and three disulfide bridges. In the CD36 family of membrane proteins, it is likely that a similar pattern of disulfide bridges can be found in the sensory neuron membrane protein-1 from the silk moth Antheraea polyphemus and the mammalian scavenger receptor class B type I, whereas lysosome membrane protein II, and epithelial membrane protein from Drosophila melanogaster are both lacking one cysteine in the area of interest.Keywords : CD36; PAS-4; purification; milk fat globule membrane proteins ; disulfide bridge pattern.The integral membrane glycoprotein CD36, synonymous with GPIIIb, glycoprotein IV, FAT and PAS-4, is expressed in platelets, monocytes, macrophages, microvascular endothelial cells, mammary epithelium cells, erythroblasts, and several tumour cell lines (Greenwalt et al., 1992). Numerous potential physiological functions have been ascribed to CD36. Most of them indicate that CD36 is an adhesive molecule, e.g. by being a receptor for thrombospondin (Asch et al., 1987;Silverstein et al., 1992), collagens type I and IV (Tandon et al., 1989;Asch et al., 1993), anionic phospholipids (Rigotti et al., 1995), and oxidized LDL (Endemann et al., 1993). In addition, it has been shown that CD36 mediates cytoadhesion of Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes (Oquendo et al., 1989), that it is involved in recognition and phagocytosis of apoptotic neutrophils (Savill et al., 1992), and that CD36 mediates oxidative burst in monocytes (Schuepp et al., 1991) and activated platelets (Ockenhouse et al., 1989). Finally, it has been reported that CD36 is involved in binding and transport of long-chain fatty acids (Harmon and Abumrad, 1993) and signal t...

Most known members of the serpin superfamily are serine proteinase inhibitors. Serpins are therefore important regulators of blood coagulation, complement activation, fibrinolysis, and turnover of extracellular matrix. Serpins form SDS-resistant complexes of 1:1 stoichiometry with their target proteinases by reaction of their P1-P1' peptide bond with the active site of the proteinases. The nature of the interactions responsible for the high stability of the complexes is a controversial issue. We subjected the complex between the serine proteinase urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and the serpin plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) to proteolytic digestion under nondenaturing conditions. The complex could be degraded to a fragment containing two disulfide-linked peptides from uPA, one of which included the active site Ser, while PAI-1 was left undegraded. By further proteolytic digestion after denaturation and reduction, it was also possible to degrade the PAI-1 moiety, and we isolated a fragment containing 10 amino acids from uPA, encompassing the active site Ser, and 6 amino acids from PAI-1, including the P1 Arg. Characterization of the fragment gave results fully in agreement with the hypothesis that it contained an ester bond between the hydroxyl group of the active site Ser and the carboxyl group of the P1 Arg. These data for the first time provide direct evidence that serine proteinases are entrapped at an acyl intermediate stage in serine proteinase-serpin complexes.

The amino acid sequence of the bovine xanthine oxidoreductase was determined by cloning and sequencing cDNA clones encoding the enzyme. Partial amino acid sequence corresponding to 54% of the total sequence were also determined from purified bovine milk xanthine oxidoreductase, showing identity with the translated cDNA sequence. The cDNA of 4719 nucleotides included a 5' untranslated region of 96 nucleotides, an open reading frame encoding a xanthine oxidoreductase of 1332 amino acid residues, and a 3' untranslated region of 624 nucleotides including two polyadenylation signals and a poly (A) tail of 74 nucleotides. The identity between the amino acid sequence of the bovine xanthine oxidoreductase and xanthine oxidoreductase from mammalian species was 86 to 90%.

SummaryLupus anticoagulants are a group of antibodies commonly found in patients with autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus. Lupus anticoagulants inhibit phospholipid dependent coagulation and may bind to negatively charged phospholipids. Recent studies have suggested an association between anti-β2-glycoprotein I and a lupus anticoagulant, whose activity is frequently dependent on the presence of β2-glycoprotein I. Based on these observations, the effect of anti-β2-glycoprotein I on the autoactivation of factor XII in plasma was investigated. Autoactivation initiated by the presence of negatively charged phospholipids, but not by sulfatide, was strongly inhibited by immunoaffinity purified anti-β2-glycoprotein I. The dose-response curve of anti-β2-gly coprotein I was identical with that of a precipitating antibody, showing no inhibition at low and high antibody dilutions and maximal inhibition at an intermediate dilution. At high antibody concentrations, an increased rate of factor Xlla activation was observed. This increase was of the same magnitude as the decreased rate observed in plasma supplemented with the same amount of β2-glycoprotein I as in the plasma itself. This confirms the inhibitory effect of β2-GP-I on the contact activation and shows that inhibition is effective on the autoactivation of factor XII in plasma. The inhibitory action of β2-glycoprotein I was independent of the inhibition caused by the anti- β2-glycoprotein I/β2-glycoprotein I complex suggesting a synchronized inhibition of factor XII autoactivation by β2-glycoprotein I and anti-β2-gly coprotein I. The inhibition caused by the antibody is suggested to be caused by a reduced availability of negatively charged phospholipids due to the binding of the anti-β2- GP-I/β2-GP-I complex. This complex may be a lupus anticoagulant.

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