ADAMTSL6β promotes fibrillin-1 microfibril assembly, which is possibly mediated via binding through the third thrombospondin type I domain to fibrillin-1.

Fibrillin-1 is the major component of extracellular matrix microfibrils. Microfibrils dysfunction is responsible for the onset of various connective tissue diseases, including Marfan syndrome. Although ADAMTSL (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs-like) 6β is one of the fibrillin-1 binding proteins, the detailed mechanism underlying the involvement of ADAMTSL6β in microfibril formation remains unclear. In this study, we created deletion mutants of ADAMTSL6β and examined their interactions with fibrillin-1 assembly. Pull-down assay of the ADAMTSL6β deletion mutants and fibrillin-1 protein revealed that ADAMTSL6β binds to fibrillin-1 through the third thrombospondin type I domain. Furthermore, we observed that formation of fibrillin-1 matrix assembly was enhanced in MG63 cells, expressing full-length ADAMTSL6β, when compared with that of wild type MG63 cells. While MG63 cells expressing Δ TSP3-ADAMTSL6β form showed enhanced assembly formation, Δ TSP2-ADAMTSL6β form did not enhance that, indicating the difference between Δ TSP2-Δ TSP3 has a critical role for fibrillin-1 assembly. As the difference of Δ TSP2-Δ TSP3 is the third thrombospondin type I domain, we concluded that the third thrombospondin type I domain of ADAMTSL6β influence the microfibril formation. Our data are the functional presentation of the biological role of ADAMTSL6β in the process of microfibril formation.