Studies have demonstrated that the 80-kDa mature form, but not the 66-kDa one, is predominantly expressed on the cell surface. Incorrect posttranslational modification of 66-kDa immature HER2 inhibitor form may lead to formation of disulfide-bonded aggregates in the endoplasmic reticulum, that ultimately do not proceed to the cell

surface [32], [34] and [35]. Here, we analyzed dental pulp cells from probands carrying both a heterozygous missense mutation (p.R152C) and a heterozygous deletion (p.N432del) in different alleles. Western blotting analysis revealed the presence of both the 66-kDa and ~ 80-kDa forms of TNAP in total protein extracts from probands and control cells (Fig. 4A), however the ~ 80-kDa form predominated in control cells, whereas there was increased ratio of the 66-kDa form (non-glycosylated, immature form of TNAP) to the 80-kDa (glycosylated or mature form of TNAP) in probands compared to control cells (Fig. 4B). Furthermore, immunocytochemistry

revealed that TNAP was localized to the cell surface (and cytoplasm) in control dental pulp cells (with native TNAP), whereas mutated TNAP protein was more predominantly localized to the perinuclear region and cytoplasm in cells from the probands (Fig. 5). We have demonstrated previously that primary periodontal ligament and dental pulp cells

harvested from the same probands exhibited increased ALPL mRNA, whereas residual Selleckchem GSK2126458 ALP activity and ability to promote mineralization in vitro were markedly reduced (40% and 50%, respectively) [18] and [20]. Here, we showed that increased ALPL mRNA concentration in these cells does not result in increased protein Florfenicol expression, suggesting that regulatory mechanisms, such as the ER quality-control system, may be intervening and resulting in defective intracellular transport of mutant TNAP, likely due to retention of a fraction of mutant TNAP molecules in the intracellular compartment. Mutations affecting TNAP trafficking have been described previously. Shibata et al. [35] showed that a homozygous missense mutation in TNAP affecting the 179 residue (p.A179T), associated with a lethal hypophosphatasia, exhibited defective folding that affected trafficking of TNAP molecules, causing only a small fraction of mutated TNAP protein to reach the cell membrane, presumably due to the formation of disulfide-bonded high-molecular mass aggregates. Intriguingly, cells expressing mutant TNAP (p.A179T) exhibited residual TNAP activity, suggesting the mutation did not lead to complete inactivation of the enzyme [35]. Conversely, Numa et al. [34] showed that the TNAP mutation (p.