The reduced, denatured somatomedin B domain of vitronectin refolds into a stable, biologically active molecule

The high-affinity binding site in human vitronectin (VN) for plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) has been localized to the NH(2)-terminal cysteine-rich somatomedin B (SMB) domain (residues 1-44). A number of published structural and biochemical studies show conflicting results for the disulfide bonding pattern and the overall fold of the SMB domain, possibly because this domain may undergo disulfide shuffling and/or conformational changes during handling. Here we show that bacterially expressed recombinant SMB (rSMB) can be refolded to a single form that shows maximal activity in binding to PAI-1 and to a conformation-dependent monoclonal antibody (mAb 153). The oxidative refolding pathway of rSMB can be followed in the presence of glutathione redox buffers. This approach allowed the isolation and analysis of a number of intermediate folding species and of the final stably folded species at equilibrium. Competitive surface plasmon resonance analysis demonstrated that the stably refolded rSMB regained biological activity since it bound efficiently to PAI-1 and to mAb 153. In contrast, none of the folding intermediates bound to PAI-1 or to mAb 153. We also show by NMR analysis that the stably refolded rSMB is identical to the material used for the solution structure determination [Kamikubo et al. (2004) Biochemistry 43, 6519] and that it binds specifically to mAb 153 via an interface that includes the three aromatic side chains previously implicated in binding to PAI-1.