The lymphocyte cell surface antigen, CD38, which has an amino acid sequence similar to Aplysia ADP-ribosyl cyclase, catalyzes not only the hydrolysis of NAD' and l-(S-phospho-P-D-ribosyl)adenosine 5'-phosphate cyclic anhydride (cyclic ADP-ribose) but also the formation of cyclic ADP-ribose from NAD'. To characterize the bifunctional enzyme properties, we produced the recombinant CD38 fused with a maltose-binding protein (MBP-CD38). Zinc ions stimulated the ADP-ribosyl cyclase activity of MBP-CD38, but inversely inhibited its NAD' glycohydrolase activity which was approximately 100-fold dominant to the cyclase activity in the absence of Zn'+. Such dual effects of Zn'+ were also observed in the native membrane-bound CD38 of HL-60 cells which had been caused to differentiate by retinoic acid. Zinc ions inhibited the NAD' glycohydrolase reaction catalyzed by MBP-CD38 in an uncompetitive manner, whereas they enhanced the ADP-ribosyl cyclase reaction without affecting the K,, value for NAD'. There was an increase in the fluorescence intensity of a hydrophobic fluorescent probe, 8-anilino-1 -naphthalenesulfonate, in the presence of MBP-CD38. The fluorescence increase was further enhanced by the addition of Zn2+ with a shift in the maximum emission wavelength from 484nm to 470nm, suggesting that Zn" caused conformational changes of MBP-CD38. These results indicate that Zn2+ directly interacts with CD38 to stimulate its ADP-ribosyl cyclase with inhibition of its NAD' glycohydrolase, probably due to prevention of the access of water molecule to an intermediate of the enzymesubstrate complex.Keywords: CD38 ; cyclic ADP-ribose ; zinc ; NAD' glycohydrolase ; ADP-ribosyl cyclase.The cell-surface antigen, CD38, is a 46-kDa type-I1 singletransmembrane glycoprotein with a short N-terminal cytoplasmic domain and a long C-terminal extracellular domain [I, 21. The expression of CD38 is widely used as a phenotypic marker of the differentiation or activation of T and B lymphocytes [3-51, though its function has not been fully elucidated. We previously reported that an ecto-enzyme activity of NAD' glycohydrolase induced by retinoic acid in HL-60 cells is attributed to the molecule of CD38 [6] and that it has an ability to bind to hyaluronate [7]. Interestingly, CD38 has an amino acid sequence similar to Aplysia ADP-ribosyl cyclase which catalyzes the formation of 1 -(S-phospho-P-D-ribosyl)adenosine 5'-phosphate cyclic anhydride (cyclic ADP-ribose) from NAD' [8 -101 ; there are especially 10 cysteine residues conserved between CD38 and Aplysia ADP-ribosyl cyclase [ll]. Cyclic ADP-ribose has been considered as a new mediator of Ca'+ release from intracellular stores [12, 131.It has been reported that CD38 catalyzes not only the hydrolysis of NAD' but also the formation and hydrolysis of cyclic ADP-ribose [14-161. However, the ADP-ribosyl cyclase activity of CD38 is quite low compared to its NAD' glycohydrolase activity ; the ratio of the two specific activities is approximately 1 : 100 [17]. In this respect, the ADP-ribosyl cyclase acti...