Fibroblasts migrate into and repopulate connective tissue wounds. At the wound edge, fibroblasts differentiate into myofibroblasts, and they promote wound closure. Regulated fibroblast-to-myofibroblast differentiation is critical for regenerative healing. Previous studies have focused on the role in fibroblasts of urokinase plasmingen activator/urokinase plasmingen activator receptor (uPA/uPAR), an extracellular protease system that promotes matrix remodeling, growth factor activation, and cell migration. Whereas fibroblasts have substantial uPA activity and uPAR expression, we discovered that cultured myofibroblasts eventually lost cell surface uPA/uPAR. This led us to investigate the relevance of uPA/uPAR activity to myofibroblast differentiation. We found that fibroblasts expressed increased amounts of full-length cell surface uPAR (D1D2D3) compared with myofibroblasts, which had reduced expression of D1D2D3 but increased expression of the truncated form of uPAR (D2D3) on their cell surface. Retaining full-length uPAR was found to be essential for regulating myofibroblast differentiation, because 1) protease inhibitors that prevented uPAR cleavage also prevented myofibroblast differentiation, and 2) overexpression of cDNA for a noncleavable form of uPAR inhibited myofibroblast differentiation. These data support a novel hypothesis that maintaining full-length uPAR on the cell surface regulates the fibroblast to myofibroblast transition and that down-regulation of uPAR is necessary for myofibroblast differentiation.
INTRODUCTIONMyofibroblast differentiation from fibroblasts is a critical component of the healing process. Regenerative healing (without scarring) results from the successful execution of what have been characterized as three distinct phases of wound healing. In the first phase, fibroblasts that migrate into the wound secrete proteases, extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules, and growth factors. In the second phase, fibroblasts differentiate into nonmotile, wound-contracting myofibroblasts that also secrete ECM proteins and remodel the ECM (Jester et al., 1995;Mohan et al., 2003;Netto et al., 2005). In the third phase, after wound closure, myofibroblasts usually disappear by apoptosis (Desmouliere et al., 1995). Pathological states such as hypertrophic scars, liver cirrhosis, idiopathic lung fibrosis, and glomerulosclerosis are characterized by the persistence of myofibroblasts, which contribute to disease progression by overproduction of ECM and by excessive contraction (Desmouliere et al., 2003;Gabbiani, 2003).To better understand the molecular basis for the fibroblast to myofibroblast transition, we have focused on the role of the urokinase plasmingen activator (uPA) pathway during wound healing. uPA is an extracellular serine protease that binds to its receptor, uPAR, and generates plasmin from plasminogen at the cell-matrix interface. Plasmin is a broadspectrum protease that not only cleaves fibrin and other ECM proteins but also promotes cell migration by activating matrix-sequestered metallopr...