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First published online 15 May 2007
doi: 10.1242/jcs.03459
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Research Article |
1 Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz, São Paulo, Brazil
2 Departamento de Bioquímica, Instituto de Química, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
3 Centro de Tratamento e Pesquisa Hospital do Câncer, São Paulo, Brazil
4 Departamento de Patologia Básica, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil
5 Departamento de Biologia Celular, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil
6 INFAR, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
* Author for correspondence (e-mail: vmartins{at}ludwig.org.br)
Accepted 11 April 2007
The physiological functions of the cellular prion protein, PrPC, as a cell surface pleiotropic receptor are under debate. We report that PrPC interacts with vitronectin but not with fibronectin or collagen. The binding sites mediating this PrPC-vitronectin interaction were mapped to residues 105-119 of PrPC and the residues 307-320 of vitronectin. The two proteins were co-localized in embryonic dorsal root ganglia from wild-type mice. Vitronectin addition to cultured dorsal root ganglia induced axonal growth, which could be mimicked by vitronectin peptide 307-320 and abrogated by anti-PrPC antibodies. Full-length vitronectin, but not the vitronectin peptide 307-320, induced axonal growth of dorsal root neurons from two strains of PrPC-null mice. Functional assays demonstrated that relative to wild-type cells, PrPC-null dorsal root neurons were more responsive to the Arg-Gly-Asp peptide (an integrin-binding site), and exhibited greater
v
3 activity. Our findings indicate that PrPC plays an important role in axonal growth, and this function may be rescued in PrPC-knockout animals by integrin compensatory mechanisms.
Key words: Dorsal root ganglia, Extracellular matrix, Cellular prion protein, Vitronectin, Axon growth, Integrins
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