Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Biol Chem. Nov 26, 2015; 6(4): 379-388
Published online Nov 26, 2015. doi: 10.4331/wjbc.v6.i4.379
Connective tissue growth factor differentially binds to members of the cystine knot superfamily and potentiates platelet-derived growth factor-B signaling in rabbit corneal fibroblast cells
Liya Pi, Pei-Yu Chung, Sriniwas Sriram, Masmudur M Rahman, Wen-Yuan Song, Edward W Scott, Bryon E Petersen, Gregory S Schultz
Liya Pi, Bryon E Petersen, Department of Pediatrics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, United States
Pei-Yu Chung, Johnson and Johnson Vision Care, Jacksonville, FL 32256, United States
Sriniwas Sriram, Department of Ophthalmology, Schepens Eye Research Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, United States
Masmudur M Rahman, Edward W Scott, Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, United States
Wen-Yuan Song, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, United States
Gregory S Schultz, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, United States
Author contributions: Pi L and Chung PY are co-first authors and share equal contribution; Pi L performed yeast two-hybrid analysis; Chung PY carried SPR experiments; Rahman MM contributed to SPR analysis; Sriram S established rabbit corneal fibroblast cell culture; Pi L, Chung PY, Scott EW, Petersen BE, and Schultz GS substantially contributed to the design of the study, acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data; Pi L and Chung PY wrote the paper; all authors made critical comments related to the intellectual content of the manuscript, and approved the final version of the article to be published.
Supported by NIH RO1 grants, Nos. DK058614 and DK065096 awarded to BEP and EY05587 awarded to GSS; Chris DiMarco Institutional Research Grant from American Cancer Society award to LP.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict of interest exists.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at lpi@peds.ufl.edu.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Liya Pi, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, United States. lpi@peds.ufl.edu
Telephone: +1-352-2945679 Fax: +1-352-2945734
Received: May 29, 2015
Peer-review started: May 30, 2015
First decision: June 18, 2015
Revised: July 29, 2015
Accepted: September 29, 2015
Article in press: September 30, 2015
Published online: November 26, 2015
Processing time: 177 Days and 11.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The relative binding strength of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) was vascular endothelial growth factor-A > bone morphogenetic protein-4 > transforming growth factor-β1 > platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-B. CTGF binding could potentiate PDGF-B signaling as evidenced by enhanced phosphorylation of PDGF receptor β and downstream AKT molecules in rabbit corneal fibroblast cells. Our findings provide deep insight into CTGF action in fine-tuned regulation of extracellular signaling mediated by different cysteine knot containing growth factors.