Biochemical and functional properties of mammalian bone alkaline phosphatase isoforms during osteogenesis

Abstract: The human skeleton is a living and dynamic tissue that constantly is being renewed in a process called bone remodeling. Old bone is resorbed by osteoclasts and new bone is formed by osteoblasts. Bone is a composite material made up by mineral crystals in the form of hydroxyapatite (calcium and phosphate) that provides the hardness of bone, and collagen fibrils that provides elasticity and flexibility. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) is a family of enzymes that is present in most species and catalyzes the hydrolysis of various phosphomonoesters at alkaline pH. Despite the generalized use of ALP as a biochemical marker of bone formation, the precise function of bone ALP (BALP) is only now becoming clear. Three circulating human BALP isoforms (B1, B2, and B/I) can be distinguished in healthy individuals and a fourth isoform (B1x) has been discovered in patients with chronic kidney disease and in bone tissue.Paper I. Three endogenous phosphocompounds, (i.e., inorganic pyrophosphate (PPi), pyridoxal 5′-phosphate (PLP) and phosphoethanolamine (PEA)), have been suggested to serve as  physiological substrates for BALP. The BALP isoforms display different catalytic properties towards PPi and PLP, which is attributed to their distinct N-linked glycosylation patterns. The catalytic activity, using PEA as substrate, was barely detectable for all BALP isoforms indicating that PEA is not a physiological substrate for BALP.Paper II. Mouse serum ALP is frequently measured and interpreted in mammalian bone research. However, little is known about the circulating ALPs in mice and their relation to human ALP. We characterized the circulating and tissue-derived mouse ALP isozymes and isoforms from mixed strains of wild-type and knockout mice. All four BALP isoforms (B/I, B1x, B1, and B2) were identified in mouse serum and bone tissues, in good correspondence with those found in human bones. All mouse tissues, except liver, contained significant ALP activities. This is a notable difference as human liver contains vast amounts of ALP.Paper III. The objective of this study was to investigate the binding properties of human collagen type I to human BALP, including the two BALP isoforms B1 and B2, together with ALP from human liver, human placenta and E. coli. A surface plasmon resonance-based analysis showed that BALP binds stronger to collagen type I in comparison with ALPs expressed in non-mineralizing tissues. The B2 isoform binds significantly stronger to collagen type I in comparison with the B1 isoform, indicating that glycosylation differences in human ALPs are of crucial importance for protein–protein interactions with collagen type I.Paper IV. Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) is highly expressed in osteoclasts and frequently used as a marker of bone resorption. Intriguingly, recent studies show that TRAP is also expressed in osteoblasts and osteocytes. TRAP displays enzymatic activity towards the endogenous substrates for BALP, i.e., PPi and PLP. Both TRAP and BALP can alleviate the inhibitory effect of osteopontin on mineralization by dephosphorylation, which suggests a novel role for TRAP in skeletal mineralization.