Adhesion of human dermal reticular fibroblasts on complementary fragments of fibronectin: aging in vivo or in vitro

Attachment, spreading, and microfilament reorganization have been evaluated in human dermal reticular fibroblasts isolated from the inner, upper aspect of the arm of a newborn male (RET5 cells) and a 78-year-old male (RET8 cells). Substrata were tested using a set of complementary fragments from individual polypeptide chains of human plasma fibronectin (pFN) or cellular FNs (cFN). With both cell classes, fragments containing the C-terminal heparin-binding (HepII) domain only elicited linear bundles of microfilaments in spreading cells but no stress fibers; fragments containing the RGDS-dependent cell-binding (CellI) domain elicited only partial spreading with condensations of F-actin at ruffling membranes and at other regions along the plasma membrane. The minimum sequence required to obtain responses identical to those on intact pFN (broad spreading with extensive stress fiber formation) was found in fragment 155 (F155) from the beta chain of pFN; F155 contains both HepII and CellI domains. In contrast, the analogous fragment from the alpha chain of pFN (F145) was notably less effective for generating stress fibers. This evidence along with the better attachment, spreading, and microfilament bundle formation on the HepII fragment from the beta chain than the analogous fragment from the alpha chain indicates that the extra type III homology unit permits more effective interaction of beta chain fragments with cell-surface heparan sulfate proteoglycan and possibly integrin (binding efficiency to the substratum was similar for fragments from both chains). Therefore, alternatively spliced sequences that neighbor binding domains can play significant roles in the interaction of the domain with cell-surface receptors of dermal fibroblasts. Comparison of RET5 responses with those of RET8 cells has identified changes in adhesive mechanisms as cells undergo "aging" processes. Attachment and microfilament bundle formation were far more effective for RET5 cells than for RET8 cells on any of the HepII fragments. Conversely, RET8 cells were far more sensitive to an RGDS-containing peptide in their medium on CellI fragments than RET5 cells. These results together indicate that in vivo aging leads to greater dependence upon cell-surface integrin binding and less dependence upon heparan sulfate proteoglycan binding for responses on FN matrices. When RET5 cells entered senescence (in vitro aging), they also became much more sensitive to peptide A. On several fragments and on intact pFN, RET8 cells generated very thick stress fibers that were observed only on one fragment with RET5 cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)