Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-5 binds to plasminogen activator inhibitor-I

Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-5 (IGFBP-5) has been shown to bind to the extracellular matrix (ECM) of both fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells. The ECM-IGFBP-5 interaction is mediated in part by binding to heparan sulfate containing proteoglycans. Because proteoglycans may not be the only components of ECM that bind to IGFBP-5, we have determined its ability to bind to other ECM proteins. When a partially purified mixture of the proteins that were present in fibroblast conditioned medium was purified by IGFBP-5 affinity chromatography, a 55-kDa protein was eluted. Amino acid sequencing of the amino terminal 28 amino acids showed that it was human plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1). To determine if this interaction was specific, purified human PAI-1 was incubated with IGFBP-5 and the IGFBP-5/PAI-1 complex immunoprecipitated with anti-PAI-1 antiserum. When the precipitate was analyzed by immunoblotting using anti-IGFBP-5 antiserum, the intensity of the IGFBP-5 band was substantially increased compared with controls that did not contain human PAI-1. A synthetic IGFBP-5 peptide that contained the amino acid sequence between positions 201 and 218 inhibited IGFBP-5/PAI-1 interaction. Coincubation of IGFBP-5 mutants that contained substitutions for specific basic residues located between positions 201 and 218 with PAI-1 indicated that some of these amino acids were important for binding. Two mutants that contained neutral substitutions for specific basic amino acids within the glycosaminoglycan binding domain had reduced binding to PAI-1. In contrast, three other mutants that also had substitutions for charged residues in the same region had no reduction in binding. Heparin and heparan sulfate inhibited the IGFBP-5/PAI-1 interaction; however, several other glycosaminoglycans had no effect. PAI-1 was determined to be an important ECM component for binding because approximately 27% of total ECM binding could be inhibited with anti-PAI-1 antiserum. Competitive binding studies with unlabeled IGFBP-5 showed that the dissociation constant of PAI-1 for IGFBP-5 was 9.1 x 10(-8) M. In summary, IGFBP-5 binds specifically to plasminogen activator inhibitor-1. Because this is present in the extracellular matrix of several cell types, it may be one of the important binding components of ECM. PAI-1 binding partially protects IGFBP-5 from proteolysis, suggesting that it is one of the ECM components that is involved in mediating this effect.