Copper-dependent autocleavage of glypican-1heparan sulfate by nitric oxide derived fromintrinsic nitrosothiols.

Cell-surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans facilitate uptake of growth-promoting polyamines [ [Belting, M., Borsig, L., Fuster, M.M., Brown, J.R., Persson, L., Fransson,L.-. and Esko, J.D. (2002) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 99, 371-376] ]. Increased polyamine uptake correlates with an increased number of positively charged N-unsubstituted glucosamine units in the otherwise polyanionic heparan sulfate chains of glypican-1. During intracellular recycling of glypican-1 there is an NO-dependent deaminative cleavage of heparan sulfate at these glucosamine units, which would eliminate the positive charges [ [Ding, K., Sandgren, S., Mani, K., Belting, M. and Fransson, L.-. (2001) J. Biol. Chem., 276, 46779-46791] ]. Here, using both biochemical and microscopic techniques, we have identified and isolated S-nitrosylated forms of glypican-1 as well as low-charged glypican-1 glycoforms containing heparan sulfate chains rich in N-unsubstituted glucosamines. The latter were converted to high-charged species upon treatment of cells with 1 mM L-ascorbate, which releases NO from nitrosothiols, resulting in deaminative cleavage of heparan sulfate at the N-unsubstituted glucosamines. S-nitrosylation and subsequent deaminative cleavage were abrogated by inhibition of a Cu 2+ /Cu + -redox cycle. Under cell-free conditions, purified, S-nitrosylated glypican-1 was able to autocleave its heparan sulfate chains when NO-release was triggered by L-ascorbate. The heparan sulfate fragments generated in cells during this auto-catalytic process contained terminal anhydromannose residues. We conclude that the core protein of glypican-1 can slowly accumulate NO as nitrosothiols while Cu 2+ is reduced to Cu +. Subsequent release of NO results in efficient deaminative cleavage of the heparan sulfate chains attached to the same core protein while Cu + is oxidized to Cu 2+.