Dominik Rünzler

The three S-layer-like homology motifs of the S-layer protein SbpA of Bacillus sphaericus CCM 2177 are not sufficient for binding to the pyruvylated secondary cell wall polymer

The S‐layer protein SbpA of Bacillus sphaericus CCM 2177 recognizes a pyruvylated secondary cell wall polymer (SCWP) as anchoring structure to the peptidoglycan‐containing layer. Data analysis from surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy revealed the existence of three different binding sites with high, medium and low affinity for rSbpA on SCWP immobilized to the sensor chip. The shortest C‐terminal truncation with specific affinity to SCWP was rSbpA31‐318. Surprisingly, rSbpA31‐202 comprising the three S‐layer‐like homology (SLH) motifs did not bind at all. Analysis of the SbpA sequence revealed a 58‐amino‐acid‐long SLH‐like motif starting 11 amino acids after the third SLH motif. The importance of this motif for reconstituting the functional SCWP‐binding domain was further demonstrated by construction of a chimaeric protein consisting of the SLH domain of SbsB, the S‐layer protein of Geobacillus stearothermophilus PV72/p2 and the C‐terminal part of SbpA. In contrast to SbsB or its SLH domain which did not recognize SCWP of B. sphaericus CCM 2177 as binding site, the chimaeric protein showed specific affinity. Deletion of 213 C‐terminal amino acids of SbpA had no impact on the square (p4) lattice structure, whereas deletion of 350 amino acids was linked to a change in lattice type from square to oblique (p1).

G-protein-coupled glucocorticoid receptors on the pituitary cell membrane.

Rapid, nongenomic actions of glucocorticoids (GCs) have been well documented, but information about putative membrane receptors that mediate them is scarce. We used fluorescence correlation spectroscopy to search for membrane GC-binding on the mouse pituitary cell line AtT-20. A slowly diffusing fraction (τ3; diffusion constant 3×10-10 cm2 s-1) of fluorescein-labeled dexamethasone on the cell membrane corresponds to fluorescein-dexamethasone binding. Preincubation experiments were performed to test binding specificity: a 500-fold excess of unlabeled dexamethasone abolished subsequent fluorescein-dexamethasone membrane binding from 58±2 (control) to 8±1 (% of τ3, mean ± s.e.m.), the natural ligand corticosterone prevented it partially (29±2), while the sex steroids estradiol (56±4) and progesterone (50±4) and the GC-receptor antagonist RU486 (56±2) had no effect. Preincubation with pertussis toxin resulted in disappearance of the slowest diffusion component (11±4) suggesting association of the receptor with a G-protein. Varying the concentration of fluorescein-dexamethasone showed that membrane binding is highly cooperative with an apparent Kd of 180 nM and Bmax of 230 nM. Taken together, these results demonstrate high-affinity GC-binding on the cell membrane of AtT-20 cells with characteristics distinct from intracellular binding.

Biophysical characterization of the entire bacterial surface layer protein SbsB and its two distinct functional domains.

The crystalline bacterial cell surface layer (S-layer) protein SbsB of Geobacillus stearothermophilus PV72/p2 was dissected into an N-terminal part defined by the three consecutive S-layer homologous motifs and the remaining large C-terminal part. Both parts of the mature protein were produced as separate recombinant proteins (rSbsB1–178 and rSbsB177–889) and compared with the full-length form rSbsB1–889 (rSbsB). Evidence for functional and structural integrity of the two truncated forms was provided by optical spectroscopic methods and electron microscopy. In particular, binding of the secondary cell wall polymer revealed a high affinity dissociation constant of 3 nm and could be assigned solely to the soluble rSbsB1–178, whereas rSbsB177–889 self-assembled into the same lattice as the full-length protein. Furthermore, thermal as well as guanidinium hydrochloride induced equilibrium unfolding profiles monitored by intrinsic fluorescence, and circular dichroism spectroscopy allowed characterization of rSbsB1–178 as an α-helical protein with a single cooperative unfolding transition yielding a ΔG value of 26.5 kJ mol–1. The C-terminal rSbsB177–889 could be characterized as a β-sheet protein with typical multidomain unfolding, which is partially less stable as stand-alone protein. In general, the truncated forms showed identical properties compared with the full-length rSbsB with respect to structure and function. Consequently, rSbsB is characterized by its two functionally and structurally separated parts, the specific secondary cell wall polymer binding rSbsB1–178 and the larger rSbsB177–889 responsible for formation of the crystalline array.

A novel bioreactor for the generation of highly aligned 3D skeletal muscle-like constructs through orientation of fibrin via application of static strain.

UNLABELLED The generation of functional biomimetic skeletal muscle constructs is still one of the fundamental challenges in skeletal muscle tissue engineering. With the notion that structure strongly dictates functional capabilities, a myriad of cell types, scaffold materials and stimulation strategies have been combined. To further optimize muscle engineered constructs, we have developed a novel bioreactor system (MagneTissue) for rapid engineering of skeletal muscle-like constructs with the aim to resemble native muscle in terms of structure, gene expression profile and maturity. Myoblasts embedded in fibrin, a natural hydrogel that serves as extracellular matrix, are subjected to mechanical stimulation via magnetic force transmission. We identify static mechanical strain as a trigger for cellular alignment concomitant with the orientation of the scaffold into highly organized fibrin fibrils. This ultimately yields myotubes with a more mature phenotype in terms of sarcomeric patterning, diameter and length. On the molecular level, a faster progression of the myogenic gene expression program is evident as myogenic determination markers MyoD and Myogenin as well as the Ca(2+) dependent contractile structural marker TnnT1 are significantly upregulated when strain is applied. The major advantage of the MagneTissue bioreactor system is that the generated tension is not exclusively relying on the strain generated by the cells themselves in response to scaffold anchoring but its ability to subject the constructs to individually adjustable strain protocols. In future work, this will allow applying mechanical stimulation with different strain regimes in the maturation process of tissue engineered constructs and elucidating the role of mechanotransduction in myogenesis. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE Mechanical stimulation of tissue engineered skeletal muscle constructs is a promising approach to increase tissue functionality. We have developed a novel bioreactor-based 3D culture system, giving the user the possibility to apply different strain regimes like static, cyclic or ramp strain to myogenic precursor cells embedded in a fibrin scaffold. Application of static mechanical strain leads to alignment of fibrin fibrils along the axis of strain and concomitantly to highly aligned myotube formation. Additionally, the pattern of myogenic gene expression follows the temporal progression observed in vivo with a more thorough induction of the myogenic program when static strain is applied. Ultimately, the strain protocol used in this study results in a higher degree of muscle maturity demonstrated by enhanced sarcomeric patterning and increased myotube diameter and length. The introduced bioreactor system enables new possibilities in muscle tissue engineering as longer cultivation periods and different strain applications will yield tissue engineered muscle-like constructs with improved characteristics in regard to functionality and biomimicry.

Shock wave treatment enhances cell proliferation and improves wound healing by ATP release-coupled extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) activation.

Background: Signaling pathways underlying beneficial effects of extracorporeal shock wave treatment (ESWT) remain to be completely elucidated. Results: ESWT enhances cell proliferation in vitro and wound healing in vivo. Conclusion: ESWT-induced ATP release and subsequent extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) activation are prerequisites for enhanced cell proliferation and wound healing. Significance: Deciphering the involved signaling cascades provides the basis for ESWT as clinical wound healing treatment. Shock wave treatment accelerates impaired wound healing in diverse clinical situations. However, the mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of shock waves have not yet been fully revealed. Because cell proliferation is a major requirement in the wound healing cascade, we used in vitro studies and an in vivo wound healing model to study whether shock wave treatment influences proliferation by altering major extracellular factors and signaling pathways involved in cell proliferation. We identified extracellular ATP, released in an energy- and pulse number-dependent manner, as a trigger of the biological effects of shock wave treatment. Shock wave treatment induced ATP release, increased Erk1/2 and p38 MAPK activation, and enhanced proliferation in three different cell types (C3H10T1/2 murine mesenchymal progenitor cells, primary human adipose tissue-derived stem cells, and a human Jurkat T cell line) in vitro. Purinergic signaling-induced Erk1/2 activation was found to be essential for this proliferative effect, which was further confirmed by in vivo studies in a rat wound healing model where shock wave treatment induced proliferation and increased wound healing in an Erk1/2-dependent fashion. In summary, this report demonstrates that shock wave treatment triggers release of cellular ATP, which subsequently activates purinergic receptors and finally enhances proliferation in vitro and in vivo via downstream Erk1/2 signaling. In conclusion, our findings shed further light on the molecular mechanisms by which shock wave treatment exerts its beneficial effects. These findings could help to improve the clinical use of shock wave treatment for wound healing.

Decellularized human placenta chorion matrix as a favorable source of small-diameter vascular grafts.

UNLABELLED Biomaterials based on decellularized tissues are increasingly attracting attention as functional alternatives to other natural or synthetic materials. However, a source of non-cadaver human allograft material would be favorable. Here we establish a decellularization method of vascular tissue from cryopreserved human placenta chorionic plate starting with an initial freeze-thaw step followed by a series of chemical treatments applied with a custom-made perfusion system. This novel pulsatile perfusion set-up enabled us to successfully decellularize the vascular tissue with lower concentrations of chemicals and shorter exposure times compared to a non-perfusion process. The decellularization procedure described here lead to the preservation of the native extracellular matrix architecture and the removal of cells. Quantitative analysis revealed no significant changes in collagen content and a retained glycosaminoglycan content of approximately 29%. In strain-to-failure tests, the decellularized grafts showed similar mechanical behavior compared to native controls. In addition, the mechanical values for ultimate tensile strength and stiffness were in an acceptable range for in vivo applications. Furthermore, biocompatibility of the decellularized tissue and its recellularizationability to serve as an adequate substratum for upcoming recellularization strategies using primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) was demonstrated. HUVECs cultured on the decellularized placenta vessel matrix performed endothelialization and maintained phenotypical characteristics and cell specific expression patterns. Overall, the decellularized human placenta vessels can be a versatile tool for experimental studies on vascularization and as potent graft material for future in vivo applications. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE In the US alone more than 1million vascular grafts are needed in clinical practice every year. Despite severe disadvantages, such as donor site morbidity, autologous grafting from the patients own arteries or veins is regarded as the gold standard for vascular tissue repair. Besides, strategies based on synthetic or natural materials have shown limited success. Tissue engineering approaches based on decellularized tissues are regarded as a promising alternative to clinically used treatments to overcome the observed limitations. However, a source for supply of non-cadaver human allograft material would be favorable. Here, we established a decellularization method of vascular tissue from the human placenta chorionic plate, a suitable human tissue source of consistent quality. The decellularized human placenta vessels can be a potent graft material for future in vivo applications and furthermore might be a versatile tool for experimental studies on vascularization.

Oxidation and nitrosylation of cysteines proximal to the intermediate filament (IF)-binding site of plectin : Effects on structure and vimentin binding and involvement in if collapse

As an intermediate filament (IF)-based cytolinker protein, plectin plays a key role in the maintenance of cellular cytoarchitecture and serves at the same time as a scaffolding platform for signaling cascades. Consisting of six structural repeats (R1–6) and harboring binding sites for different IF proteins and proteins involved in signaling, the plectin C-terminal domain is of strategic functional importance. Depending on the species, it contains at least 13 cysteines, 4 of which reside in the R5 domain. To investigate the structural and biological functions of R5 cysteines, we used cysteine-to-serine mutagenesis and spectroscopic, biochemical, and functional analyses. Urea-induced unfolding experiments indicated that wild-type R5 in the oxidized, disulfide bond-mediated conformation was more stable than its cysteine-free mutant derivative. The binding affinity of R5 for vimentin was significantly higher, however, when the protein was in the reduced, more relaxed conformation. Of the four R5 cysteines, one (Cys4) was particularly reactive as reflected by its ability to form disulfide bridges with R5 Cys1 and to serve as a target for nitrosylation in vitro. Using immortalized endothelial cell cultures from mice, we show that endogenous plectin is nitrosylated in vivo, and we found that NO donor-induced IF collapse proceeds dramatically faster in plectin-deficient compared with wild-type cells. Our data suggest an antagonistic role of plectin in nitrosylation (oxidative stress)-mediated alterations of IF cytoarchitecture and a possible role of R5 Cys4 as a regulatory switch.

Subtype-Specific Differences in Corticotropin-Releasing Factor Receptor Complexes Detected by Fluorescence Spectroscopy

G protein-coupled receptors have been proposed to exist in signalosomes subject to agonist-driven shifts in the assembly disassembly equilibrium, affected by stabilizing membrane lipids and/or cortical actin restricting mobility. We investigated the highly homologous corticotropin-releasing factor receptors (CRFRs), CRFR1 and -2, which are different within their hydrophobic core. Agonist stimulation of CRFR1 and CRFR2 gave rise to similar concentration-response curves for cAMP accumulation, but CRFR2 underwent restricted collision coupling. Both CRFR1 and CRFR2 formed constitutive oligomers at the cell surface and recruited β-arrestin upon agonist activation (as assessed by fluorescence resonance energy transfer microscopy in living cells). However, CRFR2, but not CRFR1, failed to undergo agonist-induced internalization. Likewise, agonist binding accelerated the diffusion rate of CRFR2 only (detected by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy) but reduced the mobile fraction, which is indicative of local confinement. Fluorescence intensity distribution analysis demonstrated that the size of CRFR complexes was not changed. Disruption of the actin cytoskeleton abolished the agonist-dependent increase in CRFR2 mobility, shifted the agonist concentration curve for CRFR2 to the left, and promoted agonist-induced internalization of CRFR2. Our observations are incompatible with an agonist-induced change in monomer-oligomer equilibrium, but they suggest an agonist-induced redistribution of CRFR2 into a membrane microdomain that affords rapid diffusion but restricted mobility and that is stabilized by the actin cytoskeleton. Our data show that membrane anisotropy can determine the shape and duration of receptor-generated signals in a subtype-specific manner.

In vitro extracorporeal shock wave treatment enhances stemness and preserves multipotency of rat and human adipose-derived stem cells

BACKGROUND AIMS Adipose-derived progenitor/stem cells (ASCs) are discussed as a promising candidate for various tissue engineering approaches. However, its applicability for the clinic is still difficult due to intra- and inter-donor heterogeneity and limited life span in vitro, influencing differentiation capacity as a consequence to decreased multipotency. METHODS Extracorporeal shock wave treatment has been proven to be a suitable clinical tool to improve regeneration of a variety of tissues for several decades, whereas the mechanisms underlying these beneficial effects remain widely unknown. RESULTS In this study we show that human and rat adipose derived stem cells respond strongly to repetitive shock wave treatment in vitro, resulting not only in maintenance and significant elevation of mesenchymal markers (CD73, CD90, CD105), but also in significantly increased differentiation capacity towards the osteogenic and adipogenic lineage as well as toward Schwann-cell like cells even after extended time in vitro, preserving multipotency of ASCs. CONCLUSIONS ESWT might be a promising tool to improve ASC quality for cell therapy in various tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.

Enhanced cell adhesion on silk fibroin via lectin surface modification.

Various tissue engineering (TE) approaches are based on silk fibroin (SF) as scaffold material because of its superior mechanical and biological properties compared to other materials. The translation of one-step TE approaches to clinical application has generally failed so far due to the requirement of a prolonged cell seeding step before implantation. Here, we propose that the plant lectin WGA (wheat germ agglutinin), covalently bound to SF, will mediate cell adhesion in a time frame acceptable to be part of a one-step surgical intervention. After the establishment of a modification protocol utilizing carbodiimide chemistry, we examined the attachment of cells, with a special focus on adipose-derived stromal cells (ASC), on WGA-SF compared to pure native SF. After a limited time frame of 20min the attachment of ASCs to WGA-SF showed an increase of about 17-fold, as compared to pure native SF. The lectin-mediated cell adhesion further showed an enhanced resistance to trypsin (as a protease model) and to applied fluid shear stress (mechanical stability). Moreover, we could demonstrate that the adhesion of ASCs on the WGA-SF does not negatively influence proliferation or differentiation potential into the osteogenic lineage. To test for in vitro immune response, the proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in contact with the WGA-SF was determined, showing no alterations compared to plain SF. All these findings suggest that the WGA modification of SF offers important benefits for translation of SF scaffolds into clinical applications.