Cloning and Deduced Amino Acid Sequence of a Novel Cartilage Protein (CILP) Identifies a Proform Including a Nucleotide Pyrophosphohydrolase

Pilar Lorenzo, Peter Neame, Yngve Sommarin, Dick Heinegård
1998 Journal of Biological Chemistry  
The cDNA cloning and expression in vitro and in eukaryotic cells of a novel protein isolated from human articular cartilage, cartilage intermediate layer protein (CILP) is described. A single 4.2-kilobase mRNA detected in human articular cartilage encodes a polypeptide of 1184 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 132.5 kDa. The protein has a putative signal peptide of 21 amino acids, and is a proform of two polypeptides. The amino-terminal half corresponds to CILP (molecular mass of
more » ... 8.5 kDa, not including posttranslational modifications) and the carboxyl-terminal half corresponds to a protein homologous to a porcine nucleotide pyrophosphohydrolase, NTPPHase (molecular mass of 51.8 kDa, not including post-translational modifications). CILP has 30 cysteines and six putative N-glycosylation sites. The human homolog of porcine NTPPHase described here contains 10 cysteine residues and two putative N-glycosylation sites. In the precursor protein the NTPPHase region is immediately preceded by a tetrapeptide conforming to a furin proteinase cleavage consensus sequence. Expression of the fulllength cDNA in a cell-free translation system and in COS-7 or EBNA cells indicates that the precursor protein is synthesized as a single polypeptide chain that is processed, possibly by a furin-like protease, into two polypeptides upon or preceding secretion.
doi:10.1074/jbc.273.36.23469 pmid:9722584 fatcat:yogqt5fllrglxdwbni4wsdixpi