Degradation of soluble laminin and depletion of tissue-associated basement membrane laminin by Pseudomonas aeruginosa elastase and alkaline protease.

Purified Pseudomonas aeruginosa elastase and alkaline protease rapidly cleaved soluble laminin, with each enzyme yielding different cleavage products. These cleavage fragments were separated from the intact laminin A and B polypeptide chains by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis and detected by their characteristic Coomassie blue staining patterns. Pseudomonas elastase produced rapid and extensive degradation of both A and B chains, including the disulfide-rich regions. Apparently complete degradation to limit digests was obtained after 30 min with a substrate/enzyme ratio of 30:0.5. Under similar conditions, alkaline protease rapidly degraded the A chain while slowly degrading the B chain. In addition, immunoreactive laminin was released from authentic basement membranes after incubation with either enzyme as detected by an enzyme-linked immunoabsorption assay and by immunofluorescence. The results from these studies suggest a direct role for elastase and alkaline protease in both tissue invasion and hemorrhagic tissue necrosis in P. aeruginosa infections.