Published in

Elsevier, Journal of Biological Chemistry, 36(279), p. 38072-38078, 2004

DOI: 10.1074/jbc.m402953200

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Hydroxylation-induced Stabilization of the Collagen Triple Helix

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

The collagen triple helix is one of the most abundant protein motifs in animals. The structural motif of collagen is the triple helix formed by the repeated sequence of -Gly-Xaa-Yaa-. Previous reports showed that H-(Pro-4(R)Hyp-Gly)(10)-OH (where '4(R)Hyp' is (2S,4R)-4-hydroxyproline) forms a trimeric structure, whereas H-(4(R)Hyp-Pro-Gly)(10)-OH does not form a triple helix. Compared with H-(Pro-Pro-Gly)(10)-OH, the melting temperature of H-(Pro-4(R)Hyp-Gly)(10)-OH is higher, suggesting that 4(R)Hyp in the Yaa position has a stabilizing effect. The inability of triple helix formation of H-(4(R)Hyp-Pro-Gly)(10)-OH has been explained by a stereoelectronic effect, but the details are unknown. In this study, we synthesized a peptide that contains 4(R)Hyp in both the Xaa and the Yaa positions, that is, Ac-(Gly-4(R)Hyp-4(R)Hyp)(10)-NH(2) and compared it to Ac-(Gly-Pro-4(R)Hyp)(10)-NH(2), and Ac-(Gly-4(R)Hyp-Pro)(10)-NH(2). Ac-(Gly-4(R)Hyp-4(R)Hyp)(10)-NH(2) showed a polyproline II-like circular dichroic spectrum in water. The thermal transition temperatures measured by circular dichroism and differential scanning calorimetry were slightly higher than the values measured for Ac-(Gly-Pro-4(R)Hyp)(10)-NH(2) under the same conditions. For Ac-(Gly-4(R)Hyp-4(R)Hyp)(10)-NH(2), the calorimetric and the van't Hoff transition enthalpy DeltaH were significantly smaller than that of Ac-(Gly-Pro-4(R)Hyp)(10)-NH(2). We postulate that the denatured states of the two peptides are significantly different, with Ac-(Gly-4(R)Hyp-4(R)Hyp)(10)-NH(2) forming a more polyproline II-like structure instead of a random coil. Two-dimensional nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy suggests that the triple helical structure of Ac-(Gly-4(R)Hyp-4(R)Hyp)(10)-NH(2) is more flexible than that of Ac-(Gly-Pro-4(R)Hyp)(10)-NH(2). This is confirmed by the kinetics of amide (1)H exchange with solvent deuterium of Ac-(Gly-4(R)Hyp-4(R)Hyp)(10)-NH(2), which is faster than that of Ac-(Gly-Pro-4(R)Hyp)(10)-NH(2). The higher transition temperature of Ac-(Gly-4(R)Hyp-4(R)Hyp)(10)-NH(2), can be explained by the higher trans/cis ratio of the Gly-4(R)Hyp peptide bonds than that of the Gly-Pro bonds, and this ratio compensates for the weaker interchain hydrogen bonds.