FIGURE 9.

MMPs proteolysis of CRYAB generates the immunogenic fragments. A, 1–175-residue sequence of the human crystallin αB construct tagged with the V5 and His₆ tags. B, schematic representation of the CRYAB construct and MMP proteolysis. The immunogenic regions are shown at the bottom of the panel. The immunogenicity of these regions was detected using Biozzi ABH, SJL, and 129 mice and Lewis rats (47, 48). Following the CRYAB cleavage by MMPs, the mass and, consecutively, the sequence of the digest fragments were determined by MALDI-TOF MS. The numbers indicate the positions of the cleavage sites.