Interactions of Pleiotrophin with a Structurally Defined Heparin Hexasaccharide.

Pleiotrophin (PTN) is a potent cytokine that plays an important role in neural generation, angiogenesis, inflammation, and cancers. Its interactions with the polysaccharide glycosaminoglycan (GAG) are crucial to PTN's biological activities. In this study, we investigated the interaction of selectively protonated PTN with the heparin hexasaccharide ΔUA2S-(GlcNS6S-IdoA2S)-GlcNS6S using solution NMR.

Structural Characterization of the Interaction between the αI-Domain of the Integrin Mac-1 (αβ) and the Cytokine Pleiotrophin.

Integrin Mac-1 (αβ) is an adhesion receptor vital to many functions of myeloid leukocytes. It is also the most promiscuous member of the integrin family capable of recognizing a broad range of ligands. In particular, its ligand-binding αI-domain is known to bind cationic proteins/peptides depleted in acidic residues.