Reactive center loop moiety is essential for the maspin activity on cellular invasion and ubiquitin-proteasome level.

Maspin, a tumor suppressor (SERPINB5), inhibits cancer migration, invasion, and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. The tumor-suppressing effects of maspin depend in part on its ability to enhance cell adhesion to extracellular matrix. Although the molecular mechanism of maspin's action is still unclear, its functional domain is believed to be located at the reactive center loop (RCL). We have elucidated the role of maspin RCL on adhesion, migration, and invasion by transfecting the highly invasive human breast carcinoma MDA-MB-231 cell line with pcDNA3.1-His/FLAG containing wild-type maspin, ovalbumin, or maspin/ovalbumin RCL chimeric mutants in which maspin RCL is replaced by ovalbumin (MOM) and vice versa (OMO). MDA-MB-231 cells transfected with maspin- or OMO-containing recombinant expression plasmid manifested significant increase in adhesion to fibronectin and reduction in in vitro migration and invasion through Matrigel compared with mock transfection or cells transfected with ovalbumin or MOM. Proteomics analysis of maspin- or OMO-transfected MDA-MB-231 cells revealed reduction in contents of proteins known to promote cancer metastasis and those of ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, while those with tumor-suppressing properties were increased. Furthermore, MDA-MB-231 cells containing maspin or OMO transgene have significantly higher levels of ubiquitin and ubiquitinated conjugates, but reduced 20S proteasome chymotrypsin-like activity. These results clearly demonstrate that the tumor-suppressive properties of maspin reside in its RCL domain.