Sara Marini

β2-Microglobulin isoforms display an heterogeneous affinity for type I collagen

It has been claimed that β2‐microglobulin (β2‐m) interacts with type I and type II collagen, and this property has been linked to the tissue specificity of the β2‐m amyloid deposits that target the osteo‐articular system. The binding parameters of the interaction between collagen and β2‐m were determined by band shift electrophoresis and surface plasma resonance by using bovine collagen of type I and type II and various isoforms of β2‐m. Wild‐type β2‐m binds collagen type I with a Kd of 4.1 × 10−4 M and type II with 2.3 × 10−3 M. By the BIAcore system we monitored the binding properties of the conformers of the slow phase of folding of β2‐m. The folding intermediates during the slow phase of folding do not display any significant difference with respect to the binding properties of the fully folded molecule. The affinity of β2‐m truncated at the third N‐terminal residue does not differ from that reported for the wild‐type protein. Increased affinity for collagen type I is found in the case of N‐terminal truncated species lacking of six residues. The Kd of this species is 3.4 × 10 −5 M at pH 7.4 and its affinity increases to 4.9 × 10−6 M at pH 6.4. Fluctuations of the affinity caused by β2‐m truncation and pH change can cause modifications of protein concentration in the solvent that surrounds the collagen, and could contribute to generate locally a critical protein concentration able to prime the protein aggregation.

Lysine 58-cleaved β2-microglobulin is not detectable by 2D electrophoresis in ex vivo amyloid fibrils of two patients affected by dialysis-related amyloidosis

The lysine 58 cleaved and truncated variant of β2‐microglobulin (ΔK58‐β2m) is conformationally unstable and present in the circulation of a large percentage of patients on chronic hemodialysis, suggesting that it could play a role in the β2‐microglobulin (β2m) amyloid fibrillogenesis associated with dialysis‐related amyloidosis (DRA). However, it has yet to be detected in the amyloid deposits of such patients. Here, we extracted amyloid fibrils, without denaturation or additional purification, from different amyloidotic tissues of two unrelated individuals suffering from DRA, and characterized them by high‐sensitivity bidimensional gel electrophoresis (2D‐PAGE), immunoblotting, MALDI time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry, and protein sequencing. To confirm whether or not this species could be identified by our proteomic approaches, we mapped its location in 2D‐PAGE, in mixtures of pure ΔK58‐β2m, and extracts of amyloid fibrils from patients, to a discrete region of the gel distinct from other isoforms of β2m. Using this approach, the two known principal isoforms found in β2m amyloid were identified, namely, the full‐length protein and the truncated species lacking six N‐terminal amino acid residues (ΔN6‐β2m). In contrast, we found no evidence for the presence of ΔK58‐β2m.