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CUTTING EDGE |

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Lymphocyte Cell Biology Section, Arthritis and Rheumatism Branch, National Institute of Arthritis Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892;
U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Division of Cytokine Biology, Bethesda, MD 20814
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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Precisely how these pathways are activated, how they are linked, and how they are regulated is incompletely understood. Many signaling pathways are regulated by the balance between tyrosine phosphorylation and dephosphorylation. Recently, many studies have demonstrated the importance of SHP-1 and SHP-2 (15), a subgroup of cytoplasmic protein-tyrosine phosphatases characterized by tandem phosphotyrosine-binding SH2 domains, in the regulation of signal transduction. SHP-1 is preferentially expressed in lymphohemopoietic cells and appears to act as a negative regulator of cytokine signaling, as demonstrated for IL-3, erythropoietin, and growth hormone (16, 17, 18). In contrast to SHP-1, SHP-2 appears to be much more widely expressed, but its exact function and substrates remain ill defined. It does not necessarily dephosphorylate receptors or kinases; indeed, some studies have demonstrated that it behaves as a positive regulator of cytokine signaling (19, 20, 21). In contrast, SHP-2 may inhibit TCR signaling (22).
Recently, it has been shown (23, 24) that SHP-2 is phosphorylated in response to IL-2 stimulation. However, the functions of SHP-2, either positive or negative, have not been characterized in IL-2 signaling. Here, we show that SHP-2 is involved in multiple pathways of IL-2 signaling, and we demonstrate its positive regulatory role.
| Materials and Methods |
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Immunoprecipitations and immunoblottings were performed as previously described (5, 25) using commercially available Abs, with the exception of JAK3 (25) and SHP-2 and Tyk2 (21). Dephosphorylation experiments were performed by treating the lysates with 100 U of calf intestinal alkaline phosphatase at 37°C for 1 h before immunoprecipitation.
Cell culture and transfection
Human PBMC (97% CD3+) were prepared as
described (26). NK3.3 and NIH3T3-
ß
cells (27) were kindly
provided by Dr. J. Kornbluth, Arkansas Cancer Center, Little Rock, AR
and Dr. T. Taniguchi, Tokyo University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo,
Japan, respectively. Before stimulation, cells were washed in
CO2-acidified RPMI and rested for 24 h.
Cells (2.8 x 105) were transfected with 1 µg of p3xGAS-luciferase (provided by Dr. Richard Pine (Public Health Research Institute, New York, NY)) with the indicated amounts of pCMV5-WT-SHP-2, pCMV5-DN-SHP-2, pCMV5-SHP-1, or pCMV5-DN-SHP-1 (provided by Dr. Jack E. Dixon, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI) and 0.8 µg of pCMV-ß (Clontech Laboratories, Palo Alto, CA) using Opti-MEM medium and Lipofectamine (Life Technologies, Gaithersburg, MD) for 8 h. After 16 h, the cells were stimulated with IL-2 (2000 IU/ml) for 8 h, and the luciferase and ß-gal activity was measured using the luciferase assay system (Promega, Madison, WI) and the galacto-light chemiluminescent reporter assays (Tropix, Bedford, MA), respectively.
MAPK assay
HA-ERK2 and pCMV5-DN-SHP-2 or pCMV5-DN-SHP-1 were transfected in
NIH3T3-
ß
-JAK3 as described above. HA-MAPK was
immunoprecipitated with an anti-hemagglutinin Ab, and used to
phosphorylate myelin basic protein (MBP) (Sigma Chemical,
St. Louis, MO). The reaction was conducted at room temperature for 15
min. SDS-PAGE and Western transfer were performed, and
phosphorylated MBP was visualized and quantitated by Storm
PhosphorImager (Molecular Dynamics, Sunnyvale, CA). The membrane was
then immunoblotted using a monoclonal anti-pan MAPK Ab to confirm
equivalent loading.
| Results and Discussion |
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It has been previously shown that SHP-2 is
phosphorylated in response to IL-2 (23, 24). IL-2 has been
shown to activate MAPK, with two pathways contributing to this
activation, the Grb2/SOS/Ras and the PI 3-kinase pathway (13). To
clarify the function of SHP-2 in IL-2 signal transduction, we first
analyzed potential interactions with Grb2 and PI 3-kinase. As shown in
Figure 1
, in the absence of stimulation,
Grb2 and SHP-2 were not associated. However, following IL-2
stimulation, Grb2 associated with SHP-2 in NK3.3 cells (Fig. 1
A, lanes 2 and 3) as well as
in T cells (Fig. 1
C, lane 2). Similarly,
we observed IL-2-induced association with the p85 subunit of PI
3-kinase (Fig. 1
, B, lanes 79, and
D, lane 6). The specificity of the
association was confirmed by immunoprecipitation with nonimmune serum
and with anti-SHP-2 as a positive control. To confirm the SHP-2
associations, we also immunoprecipitated with anti-SHP-2 Ab and
immunoblotted with anti p85 (Fig. 1
E, lane
10). Similar results were obtained for Grb2 (data not
shown).
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Previously, it has been shown that SHP-2 associates with JAKs,
with the exception of JAK3, and may negatively regulate signaling (28).
Therefore, we next studied the association of SHP-2 with the JAKs
involved in IL-2 signaling. As shown in Figure 2
, SHP-2 was associated with JAK3 (Fig. 2
, A and C), JAK1 (B and
D), and Tyk2 (not shown), but this association was
not influenced by IL-2 treatment. Interestingly, the JAK-associated
SHP-2 consistently migrated at a higher m.w. when compared with the
majority of the directly immunoprecipitated SHP-2; note, however, that
the total cellular SHP-2 detected by blotting lysates is more
heterogeneous than the species that is/are immunoprecipitated (Fig. 2
E, compare lane 3 with lane
4). The heterogeneity is likely due to
phosphorylation on multiple serine, threonine, and
tyrosine residues (29), and when lysates were subjected to partial in
vitro dephosphorylation a portion of the
JAK3-associated SHP-2 comigrated directly with the immunoprecipitated
SHP-2 (Fig. 2
, panel E, lane 2).
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A previous report indicated that IL-2 induced SHP-2
phosphorylation was independent of JAK3 kinase activity
(24). Therefore, we next examined whether the presence or absence of
JAK3 affected the recruitment of SHP-2 to Grb2 and PI 3-kinase. We used
NIH3T3 fibroblasts stably transfected with the IL-2R subunits with or
without JAK3 (NIH3T3-
ß
; NIH3T3-
ß
-JAK3) (5, 27).
Although in this immortalized factor-independent cell line, a basal
level of association, not observed in T cells or in the NK3.3 cell
line, was already present, we observed that association between SHP-2
and Grb2 was increased by IL-2 stimulation in cells expressing JAK3,
whereas no increase was observed after IL-2 stimulation in
cells lacking JAK3 (Fig. 3
).
Interestingly, IL-2-dependent PI 3-kinase/SHP-2 association was
detectable in the absence of JAK3; however, it was clearly increased by
the presence of JAK3. This association was less affected by the
presence or absence of JAK3, suggesting a partially independently
regulated signaling pathway. In NIH3T3-
ß
-JAK3, the basal level
of PI 3-kinase/SHP-2 association is higher than in cells lacking JAK3,
presumably because JAK3 is overexpressed in these cells.
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Having demonstrated the association of SHP-2 with various
molecules in the IL-2 signaling pathway, we next assessed its
functional role. Specifically, in view of previous reports on
experiments with other cytokines (28), we sought to determine whether
SHP-2 plays a positive or a negative regulatory role in STAT
activation. We therefore analyzed the effect of SHP-2 on IL-2-dependent
transactivation using the IFN-
-activated sequence element of the IFN
regulatory factor (IRF) gene fused to a luciferase reporter
construct (30) (Fig. 4
). The wild-type or
catalytically inactive form of SHP-2 (DN-SHP-2) was cotransfected in
NIH3T3-
ß
-JAK3 with the GAS luciferase construct, and the cells
were stimulated. As shown in Figure 4
A, IL-2 stimulation
increased luciferase activity and addition of wild-type SHP-2 further
enhanced this transactivation, whereas a related phosphatase, SHP-1,
had relatively little effect. To further substantiate a positive
regulatory role for SHP-2 in IL-2-dependent STAT activation, we next
used expression of DN-SHP-2. As shown in Figure 4
B, DN-SHP-2
significantly inhibited IL-2-mediated transactivation in a
dose-dependent manner, whereas DN-SHP-1 had no effect. Equivalent
transfection efficiency was confirmed by cotransfecting with a plasmid
containing the ß-gal gene and measuring ß-gal activity on the
transfectants.
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The positive regulatory role of SHP-2 in IL-2-dependent STAT
activation is consistent with observations on another cytokine,
prolactin (20); however, a mechanism is not immediately apparent. In
contrast, Grb2 has clearly been demonstrated to be an intermediate that
leads to MAPK activation. The IL-2-dependent association of SHP-2 with
Grb2 suggested, therefore, that this phosphatase could play a role in
the Grb2/SOS/Ras/MAPK pathway. We sought to verify this hypothesis by
transfecting HA-tagged ERK2 with or without the DN-SHP-2. As shown in
Figure 5
, IL-2 dependent activation of
MAPK was completely blocked by the overexpression of DN-SHP-2. To
confirm the specificity of this effect, we also expressed
(catalytically inactive) DN-SHP-1, which did not inhibit MAPK
activation (data not shown). These findings also suggest that SHP-2 may
have an essential role in coupling IL-2 signals to the activation of
the MAPK pathway.
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The regulation of signal transduction is maintained by a balance
between positive and inhibitory signals. Previous reports suggested
that SH2-containing phosphatases serve to dephosphorylate
JAKs and, by inference, would be expected to blunt JAK-mediated
signaling (17, 28). Our results, however, indicate that SHP-2
positively regulates STAT-dependent transcriptional activation, in
accordance with studies on prolactin and IFN-
ß signaling (20, 21).
What is less clear is the mechanism by which SHP-2 might augment
STAT-dependent transactivation. Our results suggest that by binding to
Grb2 and PI 3-kinase, SHP-2 may exert a positive regulatory role in
IL-2-induced stimulation of the MAPK pathway (13). Although SHP-2 might
serve distinctive functions in the STAT, MAPK, and PI 3-kinase
pathways, one may speculate that the action of SHP-2 on MAPK or PI
3-kinase could relate more directly to STAT activation. As STATs are
also serine phosphorylated in response to cytokine
activation (reviewed in 4 , this too may be a means by which SHP-2
could augment STAT-mediated transactivation. Whether the MAPK and
STAT pathways intersect and whether SHP-2 functions in the manner
outlined have yet to be ascertained. Nonetheless, these data suggest
that SHP-2 may be involved in recruitment of essential molecules for
the Ras/MAPK or the PI 3-kinase pathway. It will be important to better
characterize these interactions and to dissect their respective
functions. Although the target of SHP-2 catalytic activity has yet to
be identified in any system, taken together, these findings suggest
that SHP-2 may be important for regulating several of the
IL-2-activated pathways.
| Acknowledgments |
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ß
cells. | Footnotes |
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2 C.M.B. was supported by a University of Sheffield Medical School PhD studentship, the Fullbright Commission, and the Yorkshire Cancer Research Campaign. ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: MAPK, mitogen-activated protein kinase; IRS, insulin receptor substrate; IRF, IFN regulatory factor; MBP, myelin basic protein; DN, dominant negative; PI 3, phosphatidylinositol 3'; HA, hemagglutinin. ![]()
Received for publication August 28, 1997. Accepted for publication March 20, 1998.
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