Abstract
Protease-activated receptor (PAR) signaling is closely linked to the cellular activation of the pro- and anticoagulant pathways. The endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR) is crucial for signaling by activated protein C through PAR1, but EPCR may have additional roles by interacting with the 4-carboxyglutamic acid domains of procoagulant coagulation factors VII (FVII) and X (FX). Here we show that soluble EPCR regulates the interaction of FX with human or mouse tissue factor (TF)-FVIIa complexes. Mutagenesis of the FVIIa 4-carboxyglutamic acid domain and dose titrations with FX showed that EPCR interacted primarily with FX to attenuate FX activation in lipid-free assay systems. In human cell models of TF signaling, antibody inhibition of EPCR selectively blocked PAR activation by the ternary TF-FVIIa-FXa complex but not by the non-coagulant TF-FVIIa binary complex. Heterologous expression of EPCR promoted PAR1 and PAR2 cleavage by FXa in the ternary complex but did not alter PAR2 cleavage by TF-FVIIa. In murine smooth muscle cells that constitutively express EPCR and TF, thrombin and FVIIa/FX but not FVIIa alone induced PAR1-dependent signaling. Although thrombin signaling was unchanged, cells with genetically reduced levels of EPCR no longer showed a signaling response to the ternary complex. These results demonstrate that EPCR interacts with the ternary TF coagulation initiation complex to enable PAR signaling and suggest that EPCR may play a role in regulating the biology of TF-expressing extravascular and vessel wall cells that are exposed to limited concentrations of FVIIa and FX provided by ectopic synthesis or vascular leakage.