[Abnormal expression of the platelet membrane receptor glycoprotein Ib-IX-V complex in transiently transfected HEK...

The structure and function of the glycoprotein (GP) Ib-IX-V complex has been extensively investigated over the decades due to its vital role in platelet activation. For the lack of nucleus in platelets, researchers usually need to study the GPIb-IX-V complex by transfecting wild type or mutant GPIb-IX-V plasmids into other mammalian cell lines, such as CHO or HEK 293T. Therefore, whether the characteristics of the GPIb-IX-V complex in these cell lines can truly represent that in platelets is pivotal to determine whether these cell lines are appropriate for GPIb-IX-V complex studies. In order to determine the most appropriate cell line to study the GPIb-IX-V complex, the surface expression level of the complex in different cell lines was detected and whether difference among cell lines will affect expression of the complex was explored in the present study. The different combinations of the GPIb-IX-V subunits were transfected into cell lines from different species or different tissues, such as CHO, HEK293T and HeLa, and the surface expression levels of the complex were detected by flow cytometry. The results indicated that in both transiently and stably transfected CHO cells, surface expression of GPV depended on the presence of the GPIb-IX complex, which is consistent with that in human platelets. In contrast, GPV could be efficiently expressed on surface in HEK 293T cells even in the absence of GPIb-IX, although the inter-subunit dependence within the GPIb-IX complex is still similar to that in CHO cells or human platelets. Further studies in HeLa, MES13 and HUVEC cell lines revealed that GPV could be efficiently expressed on the surface by itself in HeLa and MES13 cells, but not in HUVEC, suggesting different behaviors of the GPIb-IX-V complex in difference cell lines. It is concluded that this study provides some guidance and advice to future GPIb-IX-V complex studies, especially to the choice of suitable cell line. HEK 293T cell line, for example, is likely to provide misleading results since it could not represent the fact in human platelets, thus is not the optimal choice for the GPIb-IX-V complex, particularly the GPV subunit.