Evidence that human bone cells in culture produce insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-4 and -5 proteases

Previous studies have shown that the actions of insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II) in bone are determined by both its concentration and the concentrations of the IGF-binding proteins (IGFBPs). As IGFBP concentrations may be regulated not only at the level of production, but also at the level of degradation, IGFBP proteases may be an important component of the IGF-II regulatory system. In this study, we have identified IGFBP-4 and IGFBP-5 protease activity in the conditioned medium (CM) of the human osteosarcoma U2 cell line (U2OS) and untransformed normal human bone cell (HBC) derived from skull. Proteolysis of the 29-kilodalton (kDa) [125I]IGFBP-5 produced an 18- to 20-kDa fragment of IGFBP-5, and 25 kDa [125I]IGFBP-4 yielded two lower mol wt fragments in the presence of IGF-II. CM from IGF-II-treated U2OS and normal HBC cultures exhibited decreased IGFBP-5 proteolytic activity compared to control cultures. In contrast, CM from IGF-II-treated HBC cultures had increased proteolytic activity against IGFBP-4. To determine the mechanisms by which IGF-II modulates IGFBP-4 and -5 proteolytic activity, CM from control U2OS cell culture was incubated with [125I]IGFBP-4 or -5 in the presence of various concentrations of IGF-II and IGF analogs under cell-free conditions. It was found that exogenous IGF-II stimulated IGFBP-4 proteolysis, but IGF analogs that had no or extremely low affinity to IGFBP-4 failed to induce IGFBP-4 proteolysis. On the contrary, exogenous IGF-II had no effect on IGFBP-5 proteolysis in cell-free U2OS CM. Both IGFBP-4 and IGFBP-5 proteolytic activities were inhibited by aprotinin, zinc chloride, and EDTA and eluted as a single major peak between mol wt markers of 160 and 67 kDa upon gel filtration. Based on the findings that HBCs in culture produce a protease(s) capable of cleaving both IGFBP-4 and IGFBP-5 and that IGF-II can promote or inhibit proteolytic degradation of IGFBP-4 and IGFBP-5, respectively, it is proposed that IGFBP protease(s) may be an important modulator of IGF activity in bone.