Project description:Thrombin is the key serine protease of the coagulation cascade and a potent trigger of protease-activated receptor (PAR)1-mediated platelet aggregation. In recent years, PAR1 has become an appealing target for anticoagulant therapies. However, the inhibitors that have been developed so far increase bleeding risk in patients, likely because they interfere with endogenous PAR1 signaling in the endothelium. Due to its complexity, thrombin-induced signaling in endothelial cells has remained incompletely understood. Here, we have combined stable isotope amino acids in cell culture, affinity-based phospho-peptide enrichment and high resolution mass spectrometry and performed a time-resolved analysis of the thrombin-induced signaling in human primary endothelial cells. We identified 2224 thrombin-regulated phosphorylation sites, the majority of which has not been previously related to thrombin. Those sites were localized on proteins which are novel to thrombin signaling, but also on well-known players such as PAR1, Rho-associated kinase 2, phospholipase C, and proteins related to actin cytoskeleton, cell-cell junctions and Weibel-Palade body release. Our study provides a unique resource of phosphoproteins and phosphorylation sites which may generate novel insights into an intimate understanding of thrombin-mediated PAR signaling and the development of improved PAR1 antagonists that affect platelet but not endothelial cell function.
Project description:Objective: Thrombin is the key serine protease of the coagulation cascade and mediates cellular responses by activation of protease-activated receptors (PARs). The predominant thrombin receptor is PAR1 and in endothelial cells (ECs) thrombin dynamically regulates a plethora of phosphorylation events. However, it has remained unclear if thrombin signaling is exclusively mediated through PAR1. Furthermore, mechanistic insight into activation and inhibition of PAR1-mediated EC signaling is lacking. In addition, signaling networks of biased PAR1 activation after differential cleavage of the PAR1 N-terminus have remained an unresolved issue.Approach and Results: Here, we used a quantitative phosphoproteomics approach to show that ‘classical’ and ‘peptide’ activation of PAR1 induce highly similar signaling, that low thrombin concentrations initiate only limited phosphoregulation, and that the PAR1 inhibitors vorapaxar and parmodulin-2 demonstrate distinct antagonistic properties. Subsequent analysis of the thrombin-regulated phosphosites in presence of PAR1 inhibitors revealed that biased activation of PAR1 is not solely linked to a specific G-protein downstream of PAR1. In addition, we showed that only the canonical thrombin PAR1 tethered ligand induces extensive early phosphoregulation in ECs.Conclusions: Our study provides detailed insight in the signaling mechanisms downstream of PAR1. Our data demonstrates that thrombin-induced EC phosphoregulation is mediated exclusively through PAR1, that thrombin and thrombin-TL peptide induce similar phosphoregulation and that only canonical PAR1 cleavage by thrombin generates a tethered ligand that potently induces early signaling. Furthermore, platelet PAR1 inhibitors directly affect EC signaling, indicating it will be a challenge to design a PAR1 antagonist that will target only those pathways responsible for tissue pathology.
Project description:Cytokines activate signaling via assembly of cell surface receptors, but it is unclear whether modulation of cytokine-receptor binding parameters can modify biological outcomes. We have engineered IL-6 variants with different affinities to gp130 to investigate how cytokine receptor binding dwell-times influence functional selectivity. Engineered IL-6 variants showed a range of signaling amplitudes and induced biased signaling, with changes in receptor binding dwell-times affecting more profoundly STAT1 than STAT3 phosphorylation. We show that this differential signaling arises from defective translocation of ligand-gp130 complexes to the endosomal compartment and competitive STAT1/STAT3 binding to phospho-tyrosines in gp130, and results in unique patterns of STAT3 binding to chromatin. This leads to a graded gene expression response and differences in ex vivo differentiation of Th17, Th1 and Treg cells. These results provide a molecular understanding of signaling biased by cytokine receptors, and demonstrate that manipulation of signaling thresholds is a useful strategy to decouple cytokine functional pleiotropy.
Project description:The shear stress-induced transcription factor Krüppel-like factor 2 (KLF2) confers anti-inflammatory properties to endothelial cells through inhibition of activator protein 1, presumably by interfering with MAPK cascades. To gain insight into the regulation of these cascades by KLF2, we used antibody arrays in combination with time-course mRNA micro-array analysis. No gross changes in MAPKs were detected, rather phosphorylation of actin cytoskeleton-associated proteins, including Focal Adhesion Kinase, was markedly repressed by KLF2. Furthermore, we demonstrate that KLF2-mediated inhibition of Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) and its downstream targets ATF2/c-Jun is dependent on the cytoskeleton. Specifically, KLF2 directs the formation of typical short basal actin filaments, we term shear fibers, which are distinct from thrombin- or TNF-α-induced stress fibers. KLF2 is shown to be essential for shear stress-induced cell alignment, concomitant shear fiber assembly and inhibition of JNK signaling. These findings link the specific effects of shear-induced KLF2 on endothelial morphology to the suppression of JNK MAPK signaling in vascular homeostasis via novel actin shear fibers. Tramscriptome profiling: Three independent isolates of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial cells were transduced with lentiviral vectors expressing Kruppel Like Factor 2 (KLF2) or no protein (mock), and at time after transduction 24 h, 48 h, 72 h , RNA was isolated and hybridized to GPL4868 microarrays using dye swap procedure Kinome profiling: Two independent isolates of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial cells were transduced with lentiviral vectors expressing Kruppel Like Factor 2 (KLF2) or no protein (mock), and at time after transduction 72 h , total cellular protein was isolated and hybridized to Kinexus KAM-1.1 phosphoprotein (kinexus) microarrays using dual color procedure in duplicate
Project description:While thrombin is the key protease in regard to thrombus formation, other coagulation proteases, such as fXa or activated protein C (aPC), independently modulate intracellular signaling via partially disjunct receptors. Hence, we postulate that inhibition of fXa or fIIa conveys different effects in myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) in regard to inflammation despite comparable anticoagulant efficacy.
Project description:While thrombin is the key protease in regard to thrombus formation, other coagulation proteases, such as fXa or activated protein C (aPC), independently modulate intracellular signaling via partially disjunct receptors. Hence, we postulate that inhibition of fXa or fIIa conveys different effects in myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) in regard to inflammation despite comparable anticoagulant efficacy.
Project description:The shear stress-induced transcription factor Krüppel-like factor 2 (KLF2) confers anti-inflammatory properties to endothelial cells through inhibition of activator protein 1, presumably by interfering with MAPK cascades. To gain insight into the regulation of these cascades by KLF2, we used antibody arrays in combination with time-course mRNA micro-array analysis. No gross changes in MAPKs were detected, rather phosphorylation of actin cytoskeleton-associated proteins, including Focal Adhesion Kinase, was markedly repressed by KLF2. Furthermore, we demonstrate that KLF2-mediated inhibition of Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) and its downstream targets ATF2/c-Jun is dependent on the cytoskeleton. Specifically, KLF2 directs the formation of typical short basal actin filaments, we term shear fibers, which are distinct from thrombin- or TNF-α-induced stress fibers. KLF2 is shown to be essential for shear stress-induced cell alignment, concomitant shear fiber assembly and inhibition of JNK signaling. These findings link the specific effects of shear-induced KLF2 on endothelial morphology to the suppression of JNK MAPK signaling in vascular homeostasis via novel actin shear fibers.
Project description:Soluble VEGFR-1 (sVEGFR-1) acts both as a decoy receptor for VEGFs and as an extracellular matrix protein for α5β1 integrin. A sVEGFR-1-derived peptide that interacts with α5β1 integrin promotes angiogenesis. However, canonical signal downstream integrin activation is not induced, resulting into lack of focal adhesion maturation. We performed a gene expression profile of endothelial cells adhering on sVEGFR-1 compared to that of cells adhering on fibronectin, the principal α5β1 integrin ligand. Three protein kinase-C substrates, adducin, MARCKS, and radixin were differently modulated. Adducin and MARCKS were less phosphorylated whereas radixin was higher phosphorylated in sVEGFR-1 adhering cells, the latter leading to prolonged small GTPase Rac1 activation and induction of a pathway involving the heterotrimeric G protein α13. Altogether, our data indicated endothelial cell acquisition of an highly motile phenotype when adherent on sVEGFR-1. Finally, we indicated radixin as accountable for the angiogenic effect of α5β1 integrin interaction with sVEGFR-1 that in turn depends on an active VEGF-A/VEGFR-2 signaling. Endothelial cells were let adhere in Petri dishes coated with fibronectin or sVEGFR-1 before RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. Endothelial cells plated on BSA-treated Petri dishes were used as non-adhesion control. Each hybridization was performed in triplicate.
Project description:Rat chondrocytes were divided into control group (RP), thrombin group (RPT), and thrombin plus inhibitor group (RPTi). The differential genes were identified by RNA-sequencing, and verified by western blot (WB), quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), cell immunofluorescence (IF), endoplasmic reticulum (ER) staining, functional enrichment analysis, and Gene Ontology (GO).