The size of the intracellular beta 1-integrin precursor pool regulates maturation of beta 1-integrin subunit and associated alpha-subunits.

A large pool of precursor beta 1-integrin subunits is frequently found intracellularly. During malignant transformation this pool often disappears. Concomitantly, integrin-mediated cell-adhesion functions are disturbed, even though no change in the number of beta 1-integrin receptors on the cell surface can be observed. Here, we have studied the role of an intracellular pre-beta 1-integrin pool by transfecting human MG-63 osteosarcoma cells with plasmid construction producing an antisense RNA for the beta 1-integrin subunit. Stable cell clones expressing beta 1-integrin antisense RNA were shown to have a reduced intracellular pool of pre-beta 1-integrin subunits. In the antisense-transfected cells, the synthesis of the beta 1-integrin chain was reduced by 65% compared with non-transfected or vector-transfected MG-63 cells. The decreased synthesis of the beta 1-integrin chain was associated with accelerated maturation of the beta 1-integrin chain (half-maturation time about 5 h in antisense-transfected cells compared with about 10.5 h in control cells), whereas maturation of the alpha-integrin chain slowed down. The amount of beta 1-integrins on the cell surface, however, remained unaltered. Cell clones with the largest decrease in the relative amount of the pre-beta 1-integrin subunit also showed altered integrin function. They were found to synthesize fibronectin, but were unable to assemble it into a fibronectin matrix on the cell surface. Thus we conclude that the repression of biosynthesis of the beta 1-integrin chain leads to alterations in receptor maturation and may be connected with altered receptor function.