Carboxyterminal peptides with the dimeric form of PF4 retain the inhibitory effect on the growth of human megakaryoblastic cell lines.

We have previously shown that platelet factor 4 (PF4) and beta-thromboglobulin (beta-TG) inhibit the growth of the human erythroleukemia cell line (HEL). We further studied the effect of PF4, beta-TG, and various related peptides on human leukemic lineages to determine the specificity and the relationship between the inhibitory activity and the molecular structure of PF4. The results showed that PF4 and beta-TG had an inhibitory activity on the megakaryocytic growth. Furthermore, peptides corresponding to the 1-24 and 13-24 residues but not to the 16-24 residue of the PF4 C-terminal region, the 21-29 and 20-28 C-terminal region of beta-TG and IL-8, inhibited only the megakaryocytic cell growth. Interestingly, when Gln and Asn located at positions 15 and 24, respectively, of the PF4 C-terminal region were replaced by Glu and Asp (C13-24DE), an increase in the inhibitory activity was observed. Moreover, the 13-24 monomeric form (13-24M) and modified form (13-24A), where a cysteine in C-terminal position 19 was substituted by arginine, were no longer active. These results suggest that the inhibitory activity of PF4 and its related peptides might be localized in their 13-24 C-terminal region and that a dimeric structure seems to be necessary to exert inhibitory activity.