The cell adhesion domain of type XVII collagen promotes integrin-mediated cell spreading by a novel mechanism.
Type XVII collagen (BP180) is a keratinocyte transmembrane protein that exists as the full-length protein in hemidesmosomes and as a 120-kDa shed ectodomain in the extracellular matrix. The largest collagenous domain of type XVII collagen, COL15, has been described previously as a cell adhesion domain (Tasanen, K., Eble, J. A., Aumailley, M., Schumann, H., Baetge, J, Tu, H., Bruckner, P., and Bruckner-Tuderman, L. (2000) J. Biol. Chem. 275, 3093-3099). In the present work, the integrin binding of triple helical, human recombinant COL15 was tested. Solid phase binding assays using recombinant integrin alpha(1)I, alpha(2)I, and alpha(10)I domains and cell spreading assays with alpha(1)beta(1)…