Nano-oligomeric assembly of fibronectin fusion protein

초록

Cell adhesion to extracellular matrices (ECM) plays a central role in numerous physiological and pathological processes such as morphogenesis, wound healing and normal tissue homeostasis. Cell adhesion to extracellular matrices including fibronectin results in clustering of integrins in focal adhesions. Bound integrins rapidly associate with the actin cytoskeleton and cluster together giving rise to focal adhesions, discrete complexes of structural and signaling proteins. To promote the clustering of fibronectin and thus enhance its activity at the sites of focal adhesion formation, we have engineered a fusion protein containing recombinant fibronectin fragment (hFN) connected to the tetramerization helix domain of Lac repressor for oligomeric assembly. Purified Lac-hFN fusion protein exhibited significant increase of cell adhesion and proliferation of GF cells compared with hFN alone (p<0.05).