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Meprin metalloproteases are highly expressed at the luminal interface of the intestine and kidney and in certain leukocytes. Meprins cleave a variety of substrates in vitro, including extracellular matrix proteins, adherens junction proteins, and cytokines, and have been implicated in a number of inflammatory diseases. The linkage between results in vitro and pathogenesis, however, has not been elucidated. The present study aimed to determine whether meprins are determinative factors in disrupting the barrier function of the epithelium. Active meprin A or meprin B applied to Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cell monolayers increased permeability to fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran and disrupted immunostaining of the tight junction protein occludin but not claudin-4. Meprin A, but not meprin B, cleaved occludin in MDCK monolayers. Experiments with recombinant occludin demonstrated that meprin A cleaves the protein between Gly100 and Ser101 on the first extracellular loop. In vivo experiments demonstrated that meprin A infused into the mouse bladder increased the epithelium permeability to sodium fluorescein. Furthermore, monocytes from meprin knockout mice on a C57BL/6 background were less able to migrate through an MDCK monolayer than monocytes from their wild-type counterparts. These results demonstrate the capability of meprin A to disrupt epithelial barriers and implicate occludin as one of the important targets of meprin A that may modulate inflammation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meprins, metalloproteinases abundantly expressed in the brush-border membranes (BBMs) of rodent proximal kidney tubules, have been implicated in the pathology of renal injury induced by ischemia-reperfusion (IR). Disruption of the meprin β gene and actinonin, a meprin inhibitor, both decrease kidney injury resulting from IR. To date, the in vivo kidney substrates for meprins are unknown. The studies herein implicate villin and actin as meprin substrates. Villin and actin bind to the cytoplasmic tail of meprin β, and both meprin A and B are capable of degrading villin and actin present in kidney proteins as well as purified recombinant forms of these proteins. The products resulting from degradation of villin and actin were unique to each meprin isoform. The meprin B cleavage site in villin was Glu744-Val745. Recombinant forms of rat meprin B and homomeric mouse meprin A had Km values for villin and actin of ~1 μM (0.6-1.2 μM). The kcat values varied substantially (0.6-128 s-1), resulting in different efficiencies for cleavage, with meprin B having the highest kcat/Km values (128 M-1·s-1 × 106). Following IR, meprins and villin redistributed from the BBM to the cytosol. A 37-kDa actin fragment was detected in protein fractions from wild-type, but not in comparable preparations from meprin knockout mice. The levels of the 37-kDa actin fragment were significantly higher in kidneys subjected to IR. The data establish that meprins interact with and cleave villin and actin, and these cytoskeletal proteins are substrates for meprins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MEP1A, which encodes the α subunit of meprin metalloproteinases, is a susceptibility gene for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and decreased intestinal meprin-α expression is associated with enhanced IBD in humans. Mice lacking meprin α (α knockout, αKO) have more severe colitis induced by dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) than wild-type (WT) mice, indicating an anti-inflammatory role for meprin A. Previous studies and those herein indicate the meprin B has proinflammatory activities. Therefore, mice lacking both meprin A and B (dKO mice) were generated to determine how their combined absence alters the inflammatory response to DSS. Unchallenged dKO mice grow and reproduce normally and have no obvious abnormal phenotype, except for a slightly elevated plasma albumin in both males and females and a lower urine creatinine level in dKO males. Upon oral administration of 3.5% DSS, the dKO mice have more severe colitis than the WT and βKO mice but significantly less than the αKO mice. The dKO mice lose more weight and have elevated MPO and IL-6 activities in the colon compared with WT mice. Systemic inflammation, monitored by plasma nitric oxide levels, is absent in DSS-treated dKO mice, unlike WT mice. The severity of experimental IBD in dKO mice is intermediate between αKO and WT mice. The data indicate that the absence of meprin A aggravates chronic inflammation and the lack of meprin B affords some protection from injury. Manipulation of the expression of meprin gene products may have therapeutic potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meprin metalloproteases, composed of ± and/or ² subunits, consist of membrane-bound and secreted forms that are abundantly expressed in proximal tubules of the kidney as well as secreted into the urinary tract. Previous studies indicated that meprin metalloproteases play a role in pathological conditions such as ischemic acute renal failure and urinary tract infection. The aim of this work was to examine the role of meprins in endotoxemic acute renal failure using meprin ± knockout (±KO), meprin ² knockout (²K0), and wild-type (WT) mice. Differences among the responses of the genotypes were observed as early as 1 h after challenge with 2.5 mg/kg ip Escherichia coli LPS, establishing roles for meprins in the endotoxemic response. Meprin ±KO mice displayed lower blood urea nitrogen levels and decreased nitric oxide levels, indicative of a decreased systemic response to LPS compared with WT and meprin ²K0 mice. Serum cytokine profiles showed lower levels of IL-113 and TNF-± in the meprin aKO mice within 3 h after LPS challenge and confirmed a role for meprins in the early phases of the host response. Meprin ±KO mice were also hyporesponsive to LPS administered to the bladder, exhibiting significantly less bladder edema, leukocyte infiltration, and bladder permeability than WT mice. These data indicate that meprin A contributes to the renal and urogenital pathogenesis of endotoxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Meprins are membrane-bound and secreted metalloproteinases consisting of α- and/or β-subunits that are highly expressed in mouse kidney proximal tubules. Previous studies have implied that the meprin α/β-isoform is deleterious when renal tissue is subjected to ischemia-reperfusion (I/R). To delineate the roles of the meprin isoforms in renal disease, we subjected mice deficient in meprin-β (KO) and their wild-type (WT) counterparts to I/R. WT mice were markedly more susceptible to renal injury after I/R than the meprin-β KO mice as determined by blood urea nitrogen levels. Urinary levels of inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and KO (CXCL1) were significantly higher in WT compared with meprin-β KO mice by 6 h post-I/R. At 96 h postischemia, kidney mRNA expression levels for tumor necrosis factor-α, transforming growth factor-β, inducible nitric oxide synthase, and heat shock protein-27 were significantly higher in the WT than meprin-β KO mice. For WT mice subjected to I/R, there was a rapid (3 h) redistribution of meprin β-subunits in cells in S3 segments of proximal tubules, followed by shedding of apical cell membrane and detachment of cells. These studies indicate that meprin-β is important in the pathogenesis of renal injury following I/R and that the redistribution of active meprin-α/β is a major contributor to renal injury and subsequent inflammation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meprins are multimeric proteases that are implicated in inflammatory bowel disease by both genetic association studies and functional studies in knock-out mice. Patients with inflammatory bowel disease show decreased colonic expression of meprin α, although regulation of expression, particularly under inflammatory stimuli, has not been studied. The studies herein demonstrate that the human meprin α transcript is bound and stabilized by Hu antigen R at baseline, and that treatment with the inflammatory stimulus phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate downregulates meprin α expression by inducing tristetraprolin. The enhanced binding of tristetraprolin to the MEP1A 3'-UTR results in destabilization of the transcript and occurs at a discrete site from Hu antigen R. This is the first report to describe a mechanism for post-transcriptional regulation of meprin α and will help clarify the role of meprins in the inflammatory response and disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]