Biochemistry. 1996 Jun; 35(23): 7474-81.

Substrate behavior of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 is not associated with a lack of insertion of the reactive site loop.

Gils A, Knockaert I, Declerck PJ.

Laboratory for Pharmaceutical Biology and Phytopharmacology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.

Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) is a unique member of the serpin superfamily. In the present study, we have evaluated the effect of substitution, with a proline, at positions P5, P7, P14, P15, or P16, on the conformational flexibility and functional properties of PAI-1. These mutants (PAI-1-P5, IIe-->Pro at P5; PAI-1-P7, Ala-->Pro at P7; PAI-1-P14, Thr-->Pro at P14; PAI-1-P15, Gly-->Pro at P15; PAI-1-P16, Ser-->Pro at P16) were purified and fully characterized. WtPAI-1 had a specific activity of 68 +/- 10% (mean +/- SD, n = 6) whereas PAI-1-P5, PAI-1-P7, and PAI-1-P16 had specific activities of 34 +/- 9.3%, 42 +/- 10%, and 36 +/- 11%, respectively. PAI-1-P14 and PAI-1-P15 did not exhibit significant inhibitory activity. Conformational analysis revealed that wtPAI-1 preparations contained 12 +/- 2.0% substrate, whereas PAI-1-P5, PAI-1-P7, and PAI-1-P16 were characterized with a significantly (p < 0.001) increased substrate behavior (i.e., 43 +/- 6.1%, 42 +/- 1.5% and 22 +/- 1.7%, respectively). The inactive variants PAI-1-P14 and PAI-1-P15 behaved exclusively as substrates toward various serine proteinases. Heat denaturation studies revealed that cleavage of any noninhibitory substrate form of PAI-1 resulted in an insertion of the NH2-terminal side of the reactive site loop. Incubation with plasmin showed the presence of a unique plasmin cleavage site (Lys191-Ser192) exclusively present in all latent forms studied. We conclude that (a) the entire P5 to P16 region in PAI-1 plays an important role in the functional and conformational properties of PAI-1; (b) the substrate behavior of serpins is not associated with a lack of insertion of the reactive site loop; (c) the identification of a plasmin cleavage site in latent PAI-1 may provide new insights in the mechanisms for the inactivation of storage pools of PAI-1.