PTPsigma promotes retinal neurite outgrowth non-cell-autonomously.

The receptor-like protein tyrosine phosphatase (RPTP) PTPsigma controls the growth and targeting of retinal axons, both in culture and in ovo. Although the principal actions of PTPsigma have been thought to be cell-autonomous, the possibility that RPTPs related to PTPsigma also have non-cell-autonomous signaling functions during axon development has also been supported genetically. Here we report that a cell culture substrate made from purified PTPsigma ectodomains supports retinal neurite outgrowth in cell culture. We show that a receptor for PTPsigma must exist on retinal axons and that binding of PTPsigma to this receptor does not require the known, heparin binding properties of PTPsigma. The neurite-promoting potential of PTPsigma ectodomains requires a basic amino acid domain, previously demonstrated in vitro as being necessary for ligand binding by PTPsigma. Furthermore, we demonstrate that heparin and oligosaccharide derivatives as short as 8mers, can specifically block neurite outgrowth on the PTPsigma substrate, by competing for binding to this same domain. This is the first direct evidence of a non-cell-autonomous, neurite-promoting function of PTPsigma and of a potential role for heparin-related oligosaccharides in modulating neurite promotion by an RPTP

Functional proteomic analysis of GS-NS0 murine myeloma cell lines with varying recombinant monoclonal antibody production rate

We previously compared changes in individual protein abundance between the proteomes of GS-NSO cell lines with varying rates of cell-specific recombinant monoclonal antibody production (qMab). Here we extend analyses of our proteomic clataset to statistically determine if particular cell lines have distinct functional capabilities that facilitate production of secreted recombinant Mab. We categorized 79 proteins identified by mass spectrometry according to their biological function or location in the cell and statistically compared the relative abundance of proteins in each category between GS-NSO cell lines with varying qMab. We found that the relative abundance of proteins in ER chaperone, non-ER chaperone, cytoskeletal, cell signaling, metabolic, and mitochondrial categories were significantly increased with qMab. As the GS-NSO cell line with highest qMab also had an increased intracellular abundance of unassembled Mab heavy chain (HC), we tested the hypothesis that the increased ER chaperone content was caused by induction of an unfolded protein response (UPR) signaling pathway. Immunoblot analyses revealed that spliced X-box binding protein 1 (XBP1), a marker for UPR induction, was not detectable in the GS-NSO cells with elevated qMab, although it was induced by chemical inhibitors of protein folding. These data suggest that qMab is functionally related to the abundance of specific categories of proteins that together facilitate recombinant protein production. We infer that individual cells within parental populations are more functionally equipped for high-level recombinant protein production than others and that this bias could be used to select cells that are more likely to achieve high qMab. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc