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Activation of C1r by Proteolytic Cleavage¹

From the Department of Molecular Immunology, Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, La Jolla, California 92037

Abstract

C1r was unable to cleave and activate proenzyme C1s unless first incubated at 37°C in the absence of calcium before the addition of C1s. The acquisition of ability to activate C1s was associated with, and paralleled by, cleavage of each of the two noncovalently bonded 95,000 dalton chains of the molecule into disulfide linked subunits of 60,000 and 35,000 daltons, respectively. Thus, C1r is converted from an inactive form into an enzyme, C
able to cleave and activate C1s by proteolytic cleavage in marked analogy to the activation of several other complement enzymes. Trypsin was also found to cleave C1r but at a different site, and its action did not lead to C1r activation.

C1r activation was inhibited by calcium, polyanethol sulfonate, C1 inactivator, and DFP but not by a battery of other protease inhibitors. C1 inactivator inhibited C
by forming a complex with C1r via sites located on the light chain of the molecule. In other studies, cleavage of C1r was not accelerated by the addition of C
or C1s.

C1r and C
were found to have the same m.w., sedimentation coefficient, and diffusion coefficients. They differed, however, in charge with C1r migrating as a -globulin and C
as a globulin on electrophoresis in agarose. The amino acid composition of C1r and of each of the two polypeptide chains of C
was determined. Both chains contained carbohydrate.

Proteolytic cleavage of the C1r molecule was found to occur on addition of aggregated IgG to a mixture of C1q, C1r, and C1s in the presence of calcium. Neither C1q, C1s nor aggregated IgG alone, nor C
nor C
induced C1r cleavage. Liquoid, an inhibitor of C1 activation, inhibited C1r cleavage. Thus, proteolytic cleavage of C1r appears to be a biologically meaningful event occurring during the activation of C1.

Footnotes

¹ This is Publication No. 1024. This work was supported by United States Public Health Service Grants AI-07007 and CA-14692.

² Recipient of United States Public Health Service Fellowship No. 1 F22 AI 00325.

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