Objective--Coagulation factor VIIa (VIIa) binding to its cellular receptor, tissue factor (TF), not only initiates the coagulation cascade but also induces cell signaling by activating G-protein coupled protease-activated receptors. The objective of the present study is to investigate the role of lipid rafts and caveolae in modulating TF-VIIa signaling and coagulant functions.

Methods and Results--TF-VIIa coagulant function was measured in factor X activation assay and the signaling function was evaluated in phosphoinositide hydrolysis and IL-8 gene induction. Buoyant density gradient centrifugation and immunofluorescence confocal microscopy were used to determine cellular localization of TF and protease-activated receptor 2. The data show that a substantial fraction of TF and protease-activated receptor 2 resides in lipid rafts/caveolae, and disruption of lipid rafts by cholesterol depletion or modification reduced TF-VIIa-induced cell signaling. Disruption of caveolae with caveolin-1 silencing had no effect on the TF-VIIa coagulant activity but inhibited the TF-VIIa-induced cell signaling.

Conclusion--Overall our data show that lipid raft/caveolae play a selective role in modulating the TF-VIIa signaling function without affecting the TF-VIIa coagulant activity.