Patrick Williamson

A subfamily of P-type ATPases with aminophospholipid transporting activity

The appearance of phosphatidylserine on the surface of animal cells triggers phagocytosis and blood coagulation. Normally, phosphatidylserine is confined to the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane by an aminophospholipid translocase, which has now been cloned and sequenced. The bovine enzyme is a member of a previously unrecognized subfamily of P-type adenosine triphosphatases (ATPases) that may have diverged from the primordial enzyme before the separation of the known families of ion-translocating ATPases. Studies in Saccharomyces cerevisiae suggest that aminophospholipid translocation is a general function of members of this family.

Phosphatidylserine, a death knell#

Virtually every cell in the body restricts phosphatidylserine (PS) to the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane by energy-dependent transport from the outer to the inner leaflet of the bilayer. Apoptotic cells of all types rapidly randomize the asymmetric distribution, bringing PS to the surface where it serves as a signal for phagocytosis. A myriad of phagocyte receptors have been implicated in the recognition of apoptotic cells, among them a PS receptor, yet few ligands other than PS have been identified on the apoptotic cell surface. Since apoptosis and the associated exposure of PS on the cell surface is probably over 600 million years old, it is not surprising that evolution has appropriated aspects of this process for specialized purposes such as blood coagulation, membrane fusion and erythrocyte differentiation. Failure to efficiently remove apoptotic cells may contribute to inflammatory responses and autoimmune diseases resulting from chronic, inappropriate exposure of PS. Cell Death and Differentiation (2001) 8, 551–563

Merocyanine 540, a fluorescent probe sensitive to lipid packing

Binding of the lipophilic probe merocyanine 540 to artificial bilayers was assessed by measuring the enhancement of fluorescence which results when dye enters the hydrophobic environment of the membrane. Titration of a constant amount of dye with increasing amounts of vesicles revealed that much more dye binds to multilamellar and 1000-A unilamellar vesicles which are in the fluid-phase state than to comparable vesicles which are in the gel-phase state. Incorporation of cholesterol into fluid-phase vesicles at levels of greater than 20 mol% reduced dye binding, whereas cholesterol had no effect at any concentration when incorporated into gel-phase vesicles. Sonicated 200--300-A unilamellar gel-phase vesicles, which because of their reduced radius of curvature resemble fluid-phase bilayers in their more widely spaced exterior leaflet lipids, bound more dye than 1000-A unilamellar gel-phase vesicles constructed from the same lipid. These results suggest that merocyanine 540 is able to sense the degree of lipid packing of bilayers and inserts preferentially into bilayers whose lipids are more widely spaced.

Transbilayer phospholipid movement and the clearance of apoptotic cells.

When lymphocytes (and other cells) die by apoptosis, they orchestrate their own orderly removal by macrophages, and thereby prevent the inflammation that would otherwise attend cell lysis. As part of their demise, apoptotic cells disrupt the normal asymmetric distribution of phospholipids across their plasma membranes, an asymmetry normally maintained by an aminophospholipid translocase. This disruption of asymmetry, mediated by an activity known as the scramblase, generates ligands on the cell surface that trigger phagocytosis of the dying cell before lysis can occur. This crucial alteration of the plasma membrane is not dependent on caspase-mediated proteolysis, but quite unexpectedly, it is required both on the apoptotic target cell and on the phagocyte that engulfs it. At least in the phagocyte, this rearrangement may depend on the activity of an ABC ATPase, termed ABC1 in mammals and ced-7 in C. elegans.

Phospholipid scramblase: An update

The best understood consequence of the collapse of lipid asymmetry is exposure of phosphatidylserine (PS) in the external leaflet of the plasma membrane bilayer, where it is known to serve at least two major functions: providing a platform for development of the blood coagulation cascade and presenting the signal that induces phagocytosis of apoptotic cells. Lipid asymmetry is collapsed by activation of phospholipid scramblase(s) that catalyze bidirectional transbilayer movement of the major classes of phospholipid. The protein corresponding to this activity is not yet known. Observations on cells from patients with Scott syndrome, a rare hereditary bleeding disorder resulting from impaired lipid scrambling, have shown that there are multiple activation pathways that converge on scramblase activity.

Exposure of phosphatidylserine is a general feature in the phagocytosis of apoptotic lymphocytes by macrophages

Although different macrophages exploit different cell surface receptors to recognize apoptotic lymphocytes, indirect evidence suggested that the phosphatidylserine (PS) that appears on the surface of lymphocytes undergoing apoptosis participates in specific recognition by all types of macrophages. To test this possibility directly, annexin V, a protein that specifically binds to PS, was used to mask this phospholipid on the apoptotic cell surface. Preincubation of apoptotic lymphocytes with annexin V blocked phagocytosis by elicited mouse peritoneal macrophages, macrophages of the mouse J774 cell line and mouse bone marrow macrophages. Similarly, annexin V was able to inhibit phagocytosis of lipid-symmetric erythrocytes, another target cell upon which PS is exposed. Together these results demonstrate directly that macrophages of all types depend on the PS exposed on the surface of apoptotic lymphocytes for recognition and phagocytosis.

Engulfment of apoptotic cells involves the redistribution of membrane phosphatidylserine on phagocyte and prey.

Engulfment of apoptotic cells involves the redistribution of membrane phosphatidylserine on phagocyte and prey

Involvement of spectrin in the maintenance of phase-state asymmetry in the erythrocyte membrane.

The fluorescent probe merocyanine 540 does not stain the plasma membrane of normal human or murine erythrocytes, nor of genetically abnormal human spherocytic erythrocytes. It does, however, stain erythrocyte membranes in several systems in which the underlying spectrin network is altered or missing. Because of the greater affinity of merocyanine 540 for fluid--phase lipid bilayers, these results suggest that the external leaflet of erythrocyte membranes becomes more disordered upon alteration or loss of the internal spectrin network. Analysis of the transbilayer arrangement of membrane phospholipids by digestion with phospholipase A2 suggests that lipid compositional asymmetry of the erythrocyte membrane is responsible for a phase-state asymmetry between the two lipid leaflets, and that spectrin is required to maintain this asymmetry and the gel-like state of the external leaflet.

Surface expression of phosphatidylserine on macrophages is required for phagocytosis of apoptotic thymocytes

Cells generally maintain an asymmetric distribution of phospholipids across the plasma membrane bilayer, restricting the phospholipid, phosphatidylserine (PS), to the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane. When cells undergo apoptosis, this asymmetric transbilayer distribution is lost, bringing PS to the surface where it acts as a signal for engulfment by phagocytes. The fluorescent dye merocyanine 540 specifically stains the plasma membrane of apoptotic cells which have lost their asymmetric distribution of phospholipids. However, it also stains non-apoptotic macrophages, suggesting that phospholipid asymmetry may not be maintained in these cells, and thus that they may express PS on their surface. Here, the PS-binding protein, annexin V, was used to show that in fact normal macrophages do express PS on their surface. Furthermore, pre-treating macrophages with annexin V was found to inhibit phagocytosis of apoptotic thymocytes and thymocytes on which PS expression was artificially induced, but did not inhibit phagocytosis of latex beads or Fc receptor-mediated phagocytosis of opsonized erythrocytes. These results indicate that PS is constitutively expressed on the surface of macrophages and is functionally significant for the phagocytosis of PS-expressing target cells. Cell Death and Differentiation (2000) 7, 645–653

REGULATION OF PHOSPHATIDYLSERINE EXPOSURE AND PHAGOCYTOSIS OF APOPTOTIC T LYMPHOCYTES

In lymphocytes, an asymmetric distribution of phospholipids across the plasma membrane is maintained by an ATP-dependent translocase which specifically transports aminophospholipids from the outer to the inner leaflet of the bilayer. During apoptosis, this enzyme is down-regulated and a lipid flipsite, termed the scramblase, is activated. Together, these events lead to the appearance of phosphatidylserine (PS) on the cell surface. In DO11.10 T lymphocyte hybridoma cells undergoing apoptosis, the kinetics of PS externalization are paralleled by the development of PS-sensitive phagocytosis by macrophages. This parallel is also observed when PS externalization is effected directly by application of a Ca2+ ionophore, suggesting that PS externalization is not only necessary, but sufficient, to generate a recognition signal. The broad spectrum aspartate-directed cysteine protease (caspase) inhibitor zVAD-fmk blocks externalization of PS and terminal cell lysis after induction of apoptosis by anti-CD3 antibody, but is ineffective when apoptosis is induced in the same cells by treatment with glucocorticoid. These results suggest that apoptosis induced by glucocorticoid does not require the same zVAD-sensitive caspase steps which are required for Fas/FasL-dependent death induced by anti-CD3 antibody, and that the action of these proteases is also not required for PS externalization. Extracellular Ca2+ is required to complete the later stages of apoptosis in DO11.10 cells, and its removal restores normal transport of PS, suggesting that down-regulation of the aminophospholipid translocase and up-regulation of the scramblase are not effected by irreversible protease cleavage.