Here is the link to the article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-04982-1 (and here the link shortener to the enhanced PDF: http://rdcu.be/t0vv). The take home message of the paper is summarized in its title (which therefore is perhaps too long): Efficient activation of the lymphangiogenic growth factor VEGF-C requires the C-terminal domain of VEGF-C and the N-terminal domain of CCBE1.
The importance of CCBE1 for the activation of VEGF-C has been known before. Roukens et al. (2015) showed in a in very convincing study, that the C-terminal domain is important for the proteolytic activation of VEGF-C by ADAMTS3. However, we (2014) and Bos et al. (2009) had previously shown that lymphangiogenesis is also enhanced by the N-terminal domain of CCBE1. Our data explains the mechanims behind the pro-lymphangiogenic activity of CCBE1's N-terminal domain: it co-localizes the components of the activation complex, which makes VEGF-C activation much more efficient.