Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy and Photon Counting Histogram on membrane proteins: Functional dynamics of the GPI-anchored Urokinase Plasminogen Activator Receptor

The oligomerization of GPI-anchored proteins is thought to regulate their association with membrane microdomains, sub-cellular sorting and activity. However, these mechanisms need to be comprehensively explored in living, unperturbed cells, without artificial clustering agents, and using fluorescent protein-tagged chimeras that are fully biologically active. We expressed in HEK293 cells a biologically active chimera of the urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR), the uPAR-mEGFP-GPI. We also produced HEK293/D2D3-mEGFP-GPI cells expressing the truncated form of the receptor, lacking biological activity. We studied the dynamics and oligomerization of the two proteins, combining FCS and PCH analyses, and using subclones with homogenously low expression levels. Overall, the mobile fractions of the two proteins, constituted by monomers and dimers, had comparable diffusion coefficients. However, only for the active receptor the diffusion coefficient decreased in monomer-enriched fractions, suggesting that uPAR monomers might be preferentially engaged in multi-protein transmembrane signaling complexes. Our approach helps in limiting the alteration of the data due to out-of-focus, and minimizing the overestimation of the molecular brightness. Joint to a careful design of the cellular model, it gives reliable estimates of diffusion coefficients and oligomerization of GPI-anchored proteins, in steady state conditions, at low expression levels, and in live, unperturbed cells.