Protein-tyrosine phosphatase receptor type Z (Ptprz) is preferentially expressed in the brain as a major chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan. Three splicing variants, two receptor isoforms and one secretory isoform, are known. Here, we show that the extracellular region of the receptor isoforms of Ptprz are cleaved by metalloproteinases, and subsequently the membrane-tethered fragment is cleaved by presenilin/␥-secretase, releasing its intracellular region into the cytoplasm; of note, the intracellular fragment of Ptprz shows nuclear localization. Administration of GM6001, an inhibitor of metalloproteinases, to mice demonstrated the metalloproteinase-mediated cleavage of Ptprz under physiological conditions. Furthermore, we identified the cleavage sites in the extracellular juxtamembrane region of Ptprz by tumor necrosis factor-␣ converting enzyme and matrix metalloproteinase 9. This is the first evidence of the metalloproteinase-mediated processing of a receptor-like protein-tyrosine phosphatase in the central nervous system.Receptor-like protein-tyrosine phosphatases (RPTPs) 2 are a structurally and functionally diverse family of enzymes comprised of eight subfamilies (1). Protein-tyrosine phosphatase receptor type Z (Ptprz, also called PTP or RPTP) is a RPTP classified in the R5 subfamily and expressed in neuronal and glial cells in the central nervous system (2-4). The physiological importance of this molecule has been demonstrated through studies of Ptprz-deficient mice (4, 5), which display impairments in hippocampal function in a maturation-dependent manner (6, 7). An independently generated knock-out mouse line suggests a fragility of myelin in the central nervous system (8).It is known that three isoforms of Ptprz are generated by alternative splicing from a single Ptprz gene (on mouse chromosome 6; human chromosome 7), the two transmembrane isoforms Ptprz-A and Ptprz-B and the secretory isoform Ptprz-S (also known as 6B4 proteoglycan or phosphacan) (2, 9 -12), all of which are expressed as chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans in the brain (3). However, some inexplicable issues about the molecular profiles of Ptprz have remained in previous studies. For instance, although there exists substantial expression of the respective transcripts for all isoforms (11, 13), fulllength Ptprz-A has been scarcely observed at the protein level in the adult brain (3, 4). In addition, several lower molecular species have been detected with a specific antibody against Ptprz in wild-type mice (4). The technical difficulty in removal of the chondroitin sulfate chains to separate their core proteins by SDS-PAGE may induce variability in the signal patterns of this molecule in Western blotting among researchers.In this study we examined the molecular profile of Ptprz in the adult mouse brain at both protein and mRNA levels in detail and revealed that the proteolytic fragments are abundantly accumulated. The two receptor isoforms were found to undergo ectodomain cleavage by metalloproteinases, releasing their extracellular fragm...