Expression and characterisation of a very-late antigen-4 (alpha 4 beta 1) integrin-binding fragment of vascular cell-adhesion molecule-1

Abstract

We have used an Escherichia coli expression system to produce forms of vascular cell-adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) containing the first two and three supposed immunoglobulin-like domains. A form consisting of the first two domains of VCAM-1 is shown to promote very-late antigen-4-dependent spreading of a melanoma cell line comparable to that found for the equivalent region in the full seven-domain form. Preliminary structural analysis by CD and NMR is consistent with an immunoglobulin fold which is predicted from sequence comparison studies.