Metallopeptidase inhibitors induce an up-regulation of endothelin-converting enzyme levels and its redistribution from the plasma membrane to an intracellular compartment.

Endothelin-converting enzyme is a phosphoramidon-sensitive membrane metallopeptidase that catalyses the final step in biosynthesis of the potent vasoactive endothelin peptides. Immunomagnetic separation technology and immunohistochemistry have been used to demonstrate the co-localisation of endothelin-converting enzyme with the established ectoenzyme, aminopeptidase N, on the surface of endothelial cells. Unlike aminopeptidase N, however, endothelin-converting enzyme is seen to associate in clusters on the plasma membrane which can be distinguished from caveolae both biochemically and immunologically. Pre-treatment of endothelial cells with the metallopeptidase inhibitors phosphoramidon or thiorphan in the range 0.01-100 microM produced a dose-dependent increase in the levels of endothelin-converting enzyme protein and its accumulation in an intracellular compartment. No corresponding change in the levels of endothelin-converting enzyme-1 mRNA was detected under these conditions, nor in the levels of the closely related metalloenzyme, endopeptidase-24.11. The phosphoramidon and thiorphan-dependent increase is not due to direct inhibition of endothelin-converting enzyme not endopeptidase-24.11 but, rather, to an inhibition of the selective turnover of endothelin-converting enzyme protein.