The neural cell adhesion molecule "close homologue of L1," termed CHL1, has functional importance in the nervous system. CHL1 is expressed as a transmembrane protein of 185 kDa, and ectodomain shedding releases soluble fragments relevant for its physiological function. Here we describe that ADAM8, a member of the family of metalloprotease disintegrins cleaves a CHL1-Fc fusion protein in vitro at two sites corresponding to release of the extracellular domain of CHL1 in fibronectin (FN) domains II (125 kDa) and V (165 kDa), inhibited by batimastat (BB-94). Cleavage of CHL1-Fc in the 125-kDa fragment was not detectable under nonreducing conditions arguing that cleavage resulting in the 165-kDa fragment is more relevant in releasing soluble CHL1 in vivo. In cells transfected with full-length ADAM8, membrane proximal cleavage of CHL1 was similar and not stimulated by phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate and pervanadate. No cleavage of CHL1 was observed in cells expressing either inactive ADAM8 with a Glu 330 to Gln exchange (EQ-A8), or active ADAM10 and ADAM17. Consequently, processing of CHL1 was hardly detectable in brain extracts of ADAM8-deficient mice but enhanced in a neurodegenerative mouse mutant. CHL1 processed by ADAM8 in supernatants of COS-7 cells and in co-culture with cerebellar granule neurons was very potent in stimulating neurite outgrowth and suppressing neuronal cell death, not observed in cells co-transfected with CHL1/EQ-A8, CHL1/ ADAM10, or CHL1/ADAM17. Taken together, we propose that ADAM8 plays an important role in physiological and pathological cell interactions by a specific release of functional CHL1 from the cell surface.Many membrane-anchored proteins are subjected to proteolytic processing thereby releasing their extracellular domains, a process termed ectodomain shedding (1). This modification causes qualitative and irreversible changes in the function of these molecules. As demonstrated with genetic and biochemical means, enzymes capable of these functions are ADAMs 1 (for "a disintegrin and metalloprotease domain"), proteins that constitute a family of transmembrane glycoproteins with essential physiological roles in fertilization, myogenesis, and neurogenesis (2). These functions are due to distinct protein domains involved in either cell-cell fusion or cell-cell interaction, or to their zinc-coordinating metalloprotease domain. To date, the family of ADAM proteinases comprises more than 30 members in different species (3, 4). Fourteen of the murine ADAMs contain the catalytic consensus sequence HEXXHXXGXXHD in their metalloprotease domains and are therefore predictably proteolytically active (3, 4). The cleavage of myelin basic protein (MBP) by ADAM10/MADM (mammalian disintegrin-metalloprotease) was the first demonstration of proteolysis by ADAMs (5). The TNF-␣ convertase (TACE/ADAM17) was purified on the basis of its ability to cleave TNF-␣ (6, 7) and a number of other peptide and protein substrates in vitro (1,8). TACE is also implicated in the shedding of factors in...