Abstract
Vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin is the major adhesion molecule of endothelial adherens junctions. It plays an essential role in controlling endothelial permeability, vascular integrity, leukocyte transmigration, and angiogenesis. Elevated levels of soluble VE-cadherin are associated with diseases like coronary atherosclerosis. Previous data showed that the extracellular domain of VE-cadherin is released by an unknown metalloprotease activity during apoptosis. In this study, we used gain-of-function analyses, inhibitor studies, and RNA interference experiments to analyze the proteolytic release of VE-cadherin in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). We found that VE-cadherin is specifically cleaved by the disintegrin and metalloprotease ADAM10 in its ectodomain, releasing a soluble fragment and generating a carboxyl-terminal membrane-bound stub, which is a substrate for a subsequent gamma-secretase cleavage. This ADAM10-mediated proteolysis could be induced by Ca(2+) influx and staurosporine treatment, indicating that ADAM10-mediated VE-cadherin cleavage contributes to the dissolution of adherens junctions during endothelial cell activation and apoptosis, respectively. In contrast, protein kinase C activation or inhibition did not modulate VE-cadherin processing. Increased ADAM10 expression was functionally associated with an increase in endothelial permeability. Remarkably, our data indicate that ADAM10 activity also contributes to the thrombin-induced decrease of endothelial cell-cell adhesion. Moreover, knockdown of ADAM10 in HUVECs as well as in T cells by small interfering RNA impaired T-cell transmigration. Taken together, our data identify ADAM10 as a novel regulator of vascular permeability and demonstrate a hitherto unknown function of ADAM10 in the regulation of VE-cadherin-dependent endothelial cell functions and leukocyte transendothelial migration.