- Chehab, Tarek;
- Santos, Nina;
- Holthenrich, Anna;
- Koerdt, Sophia;
- Disse, Jennifer;
- Schuberth, Christian;
- Nazmi, Ali;
- Neeft, Maaike;
- Koch, Henriette;
- Wojcik, Sonja;
- Martin, Thomas;
- van der Sluijs, Peter;
- Brose, Nils;
- Gerke, Volker;
- Man, Kwun Nok Mimi
Endothelial cells respond to blood vessel injury by the acute release of the procoagulant von Willebrand factor, which is stored in unique secretory granules called Weibel-Palade bodies (WPBs). Stimulated WPB exocytosis critically depends on their proper recruitment to the plasma membrane, but factors involved in WPB-plasma membrane tethering are not known. Here we identify Munc13-4, a protein mutated in familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis 3, as a WPB-tethering factor. Munc13-4 promotes histamine-evoked WPB exocytosis and is present on WPBs, and secretagogue stimulation triggers an increased recruitment of Munc13-4 to WPBs and a clustering of Munc13-4 at sites of WPB-plasma membrane contact. We also identify the S100A10 subunit of the annexin A2 (AnxA2)-S100A10 protein complex as a novel Munc13-4 interactor and show that AnxA2-S100A10 participates in recruiting Munc13-4 to WPB fusion sites. These findings indicate that Munc13-4 supports acute WPB exocytosis by tethering WPBs to the plasma membrane via AnxA2-S100A10.