Aortic carboxypeptidase-like protein, a novel protein with discoidin and carboxypeptidase-like domains, is up-regulated during vascular smooth muscle cell differentiation.

Phenotypic modulation of vascular smooth muscle cells plays an important role in the pathogenesis of arteriosclerosis. In a screen of proteins expressed in human aortic smooth muscle cells, we identified a novel gene product designated aortic carboxypeptidase-like protein (ACLP). The approximately 4-kilobase human cDNA and its mouse homologue encode 1158 and 1128 amino acid proteins, respectively, that are 85% identical. ACLP is a nonnuclear protein that contains a signal peptide, a lysine- and proline-rich 11-amino acid repeating motif, a discoidin-like domain, and a C-terminal domain with 39% identity to carboxypeptidase E. By Western blot analysis and in situ hybridization, we detected abundant ACLP expression in the adult aorta. ACLP was expressed predominantly in the smooth muscle cells of the adult mouse aorta but not in the adventitia or in several other tissues. In cultured mouse aortic smooth muscle cells, ACLP mRNA and protein were up-regulated 2-3-fold after serum starvation. Using a recently developed neural crest cell to smooth muscle cell in vitro differentiation system, we found that ACLP mRNA and protein were not expressed in neural crest cells but were up-regulated dramatically with the differentiation of these cells. These results indicate that ACLP may play a role in differentiated vascular smooth muscle cells.