PMID: 9531293Apr 8, 1998Paper

Identification of the second heparin-binding domain in human complement factor H.

The Journal of Immunology : Official Journal of the American Association of Immunologists
T K BlackmoreD L Gordon

Abstract

Complement factor H (fH) regulates activation of the alternative pathway of C, reducing the amount of C3b deposited on sialic acid-rich surfaces. Heparin binding has been used as a model for examining the sialic acid-binding characteristics of fH. We have previously shown that of the 20 short consensus repeat (SCR) modules of fH, SCR 7 contains an important heparin binding site, but other SCRs also play a role in heparin binding. To localize the other sites, we prepared recombinant truncated and SCR deletion mutants of fH and tested them by heparin-agarose affinity chromatography. The 5 C-terminal SCRs were found to contain a heparin binding site as an SCR 7 deletion mutant of the N terminal 15 SCRs did not bind heparin, but a construct consisting of SCRs 16-20 was shown to bind heparin. Double deletion of SCRs 7 and 20 from fH abrogated binding to heparin, indicating that SCR 20 contains a heparin binding site. This finding was confirmed with the observation that attachment of SCR 20 to a group of nonbinding SCRs produced a heparin-binding protein. A protein consisting of SCRs 19 and 20 did not bind heparin, whereas SCRs 18-20 did, indicating that, although SCR 20 contains a heparin binding site, at least two nonspecific adjac...Continue Reading

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