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CUTTING EDGE |
Receptor Signaling1

Departments of
*
Immunology and
Biological Regulation, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| Abstract |
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receptor to the secretory
response of mast cells; hence, the existence of a novel type of
cross-talk between protein serine/threonine kinases and protein
tyrosine kinases is suggested. | Introduction |
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receptor
(Fc
RI)3 on mast
cells initiates the biochemical cascades, which culminate in the
secretory response of these cells. Subsequent steps involve the
activation of the protein tyrosine kinases Lyn and Syk
(1, 2, 3, 4). Activated Syk further couples this cascade to
downstream events, leading to the secretion of granule-stored mediators
by these cells as well as to de novo synthesis and to
the secretion of leukotrienes and cytokines (5).
Syk-deficient mast cells fail to degranulate, to synthesize and secrete
these leukotrienes and cytokines when stimulated by Fc
RI clustering
(5, 6). Transfection of Syk into these cells reconstitutes
Fc
RI-mediated secretion (5). The activation of Syk was
shown to involve the phosphorylation of serine residues
in addition to tyrosyl phosphorylation (7, 8), but its mechanism and functional role are unknown. Syk
activation is also known to be essential for the Fc
RI-induced
activation of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases (MAPKs)
(6), probably through phosphorylation of
Shc and triggering of the Grb2/Sos/Ras cascade (9).
Earlier studies have shown MAPK/extracellular signal-regulated kinase
(ERK) involvement in mast cell synthesis and secretion of arachidonic
acid and TNF-
; however, a role for MAPK/ERK in the induction of
degranulation has been excluded (10, 11). Here, we report
results that suggest that ERK is involved in the degranulation of mast
cells due to its interactions with and regulation of Syk. This finding
is expressed by the phosphorylation of Syk by ERK on
serine residues, causing its enhanced activity, as well as by the
direct association of the two enzymes as evidenced by their
coisolation. | Materials and Methods |
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DNP11-BSA (Ag consisting of 11 molecules of dinitrophenol (DNP) conjugated with 1 molecule of BSA) was prepared in our laboratory from BSA (fraction V) (Sigma, St. Louis, MO) by reaction with fluoro-2,4 dinitrobenzene. The mouse IgE class, DNP-specific mAb A2IgE preparation has been described previously (12). Lyn- and Syk-specific polyclonal Abs were generous gifts of Dr. J. Cambier (National Jewish Center, Denver, CO). These Abs were raised in rabbits immunized with the 1131 domain of Lyn and the 257352 linker domain of Syk, respectively. The plasmid encoding the hemopoietic-lineage cell-specific protein (HS1) fused with GST (GST-HS1) (13) was kindly provided by Dr. Ulrich Blank (Immuno-Allergie, Institute Pasteur, Paris, France), and the protein was expressed in Escherichia coli and was affinity purified on GST beads. GST-mSyk recombinant baculovirus was kindly provided by Dr. R. Geahlen (Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN). Recombinant GST murine Syk (rSyk) was expressed in Spodoptera frugiperda insect cells and purified as described previously (14). All other reagents were purchased from commercial sources as indicated.
Immunoprecipitation and Western blotting
Rat basophilic leukemia 2H3 (RBL-2H3) cells were plated (7
x 106/15 ml DMEM plus 10% FCS in 100-mm tissue
culture dishes), cultured overnight, and saturated with a DNP-specific
monoclonal IgE. Following the addition of Ag (50 ng/ml DNP11-BSA or as
indicated), cells were lysed at the indicated times in 0.7 ml of Triton
X-100 lysis buffer (50 mM HEPES (pH 7.4), 100 mM NaF, 10 mM EDTA, 10%
glycerol, and 1% Triton X-100) containing protease and phosphatase
inhibitors (1 mM sodium orthovanadate and 50 mM
-glycerophosphate)
on ice for 20 min. Digitonin lysis buffer (1% Digitonin, 150 mM NaCl,
and 10 mM triethanolamine (pH 7.8)) containing the same inhibitors was
used for coimmunoprecipitation. Lysates were centrifuged for 15 min at
15,000 x g at 4°C, and the postnuclear supernatants
were reacted with the relevant Ab bound to protein G-Sepharose beads
(Pharmacia, Uppsala, Sweden). After 2 h of equilibration (4°C),
the beads were washed once with 0.5 M LiCl, three times with ice-cold
lysis buffer (for the coimmunoprecipitation, 0.2% Digitonin was used
instead of 1%), and once with lysis buffer without detergent; the
bound proteins were then eluted at 95°C for 5 min with SDS sample
buffer plus 0.5% 2-ME. Proteins were separated by SDS-PAGE and
transferred to nitrocellulose membranes blocked by 0.1% gelatin/0.05%
Tween 20 in Tris-buffered saline before incubation with specific Abs.
Proteins were detected with peroxidase-conjugated secondary Abs
(Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories, West Grove, PA) and
chemiluminescence reagents (Amersham, Little Chalfont, U.K.).
In vitro kinase assays and phosphoamino acid analysis
Syk was immunoprecipitated from RBL-2H3 cell lysates.
Syk-carrying beads were washed further with a buffer of 20 mM HEPES and
100 mM NaCl (pH 7.5). Wild-type Syk (1 x
107 cells) or rSyk (0.5 µg) were incubated with
or without active ERK (Sigma, Israel) in 21 µl of kinase buffer B (25
µM
-glycerophosphate, 0.5 µM DTT, 1.27 µM EGTA, 0.05 µM
NaVO4, 10 µM MgCl2, and
0.04 µM ATP) for 20 min at 30°C. Syk activity was assayed by the
addition of 10 µl of kinase assay buffer A (0.02 µM ATP instead of
the 0.04 µM of ATP used in buffer B) containing 10 µCi of
[
-32P]ATP, 5 mM MnCl, and 1.5 µg of Syk
substrate (GST-HS1) incubated for 8 min at 30°C. The reaction was
stopped by SDS sample-buffer plus 0.5% 2-ME. Samples were analyzed by
SDS-PAGE, autoradiography, and Western blotting. The
phosphorylation of Syk by ERK was attained by
incubation with active ERK (70 ng) in 21 µl of kinase buffer A
containing 10 µCi of [
-32P]ATP for 20 min
at 30°C and was subsequently analyzed by SDS-PAGE, followed by
autoradiography. Syk-containing bands were cut out and analyzed for
phosphoamino acid (15).
Secretory response assay
RBL-2H3 cells were plated in 96-well plates (7 x
104/well/100 µl DMEM), incubated overnight at
37°C, saturated with DNP-specific monoclonal IgE, washed three times
with Tyrodes buffer (16), and incubated in 50 µl of
Tyrodes buffer with the indicated amounts of MAPK/ERK-activating
kinase (MEK) inhibitors (PD98059 (Biomol, Plymouth Meeting, PA) or
U0126 (DuPont, Wilmington, DE)) or without inhibitors for 20 min at
37°C. Next, 50 µl of Tyrodes buffer containing different Ag
concentrations was added, and the incubation continued for 50 min at
37°C. Supernatant aliquots (15 µl) were then taken and transferred
to a separate plate, and 40 µl of
-hexosaminidase substrate
solution (1.3 mg/ml
p-nitrophenyl-N-acetyl-
-D-glucosamine
in 0.1 M citrate (pH 4.5)) was added to the samples. The plates were
then incubated for 60 min at 37°C, and the reaction was terminated by
the addition of 150 µl of "stop" solution (0.2 M glycine (pH
10.7)). The absorbency change caused by substrate hydrolysis was
measured at 405 nm in an ELISA reader. Degranulation was calculated as
the percentage of the total enzyme activity measured in 1% Triton
X-100-lysed cells; data are the average of three independent
experiments.
| Results and Discussion |
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RBL-2H3 cells were saturated with a monoclonal, DNP-specific IgE
(A2) and incubated with the MEK inhibitors
PD98059 (17) or U0126 (18) for 20 min at
37°C followed by stimulation with Ag; next, the state of tyrosyl
phosphorylation of Lyn and Syk in the cells was
examined. The protein tyrosine kinases were immunoprecipitated from
lysates by the appropriate specific polyclonal Abs followed by SDS-PAGE
separation and Western blotting with a phosphotyrosine-specific mAb
(PY-20); Although Ag-induced tyrosyl phosphorylation of
Lyn was found to be unaffected, that of Syk was markedly suppressed in
a dose-dependent manner by up to
74% by both inhibitors (Fig. 1
A). Both inhibitors also
reduced ERK activation (Fig. 1
B and data not shown) and the
Ag-induced activation of Syk (data not shown). Degranulation assays, in
which the activity of secreted
-hexosaminidase was monitored, showed
that both MEK inhibitors caused up to a 40% decrease in Ag-induced
secretion (Fig. 1
C). These results indicate that although
MEK/ERK were shown to act downstream of Lyn, they may cause regulation
of Syk activity and thereby control certain elements of the
stimulus-response coupling in these cells.
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To better define the above relationships, Syk was affinity
isolated from resting RBL-2H3 cells by specific polyclonal Abs and the
activity of Syk was examined. It was found that Syk underwent
autophosphorylation even without incubation with ERK;
however, its phosphorylation was enhanced by incubation
with active ERK (Fig. 2
A).
Phosphoamino acid analysis showed that this additional
phosphorylation was confined to serine residues (Fig. 2
B). Furthermore, using the Syk substrate GST-HS1
(13), the enzymatic activity of Syk was found to be
markedly enhanced following incubation with active ERK (Fig. 2
A). This activation of Syk exhibited a clear concentration
dependence upon active ERK (Fig. 2
C). Because there are no
serine/threonine residues in the HS1 peptide and because GST-HS1 was
not phosphorylated by ERK (Fig. 2
C), these
results indicate that Syk can be directly phosphorylated
and activated by ERK. Active Syk neither phosphorylated
recombinant ERK nor affected its activation (data not shown).
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To exclude the possibility that traces of coimmunoisolated
proteins are responsible for the capacity of ERK to
phosphorylate and activate Syk, rSyk was employed in in
vitro kinase assays. It was found that rSyk underwent efficient
autophosphorylation and also phosphorylated
GST-HS1 when incubated with [
-32P]ATP (Fig. 3
A). Still, rSyk incubation
with active ERK further enhanced its activity (Fig. 3
B) in a
dose- (Fig. 3
B, left panel) and time-dependent
manner (Fig. 3
B, right panel). Coincubation of
nonphosphorylated recombinant ERK with rSyk did not cause
any changes in Syk activity (data not shown), suggesting that the above
activity enhancement depends upon phosphorylation by
ERK and not only association of ERK to Syk (see below). Purified rSyk
was shown to have a relatively high basal
phosphorylation and activity (Fig. 3
A). To
reduce this basal phosphorylation, rSyk (in its GST
bead-bound form) was dephosphorylated by incubation with
Shrimp alkaline phosphatase (1 U per 1 µg rSyk) at 37°C for 20 min,
washed three times with PBS, eluted by reduced glutathione, incubated
with active ERK, and subsequently assayed for its
phosphorylation and activity. Comparison between
untreated rSyk and dephosphorylated rSyk showed that the
autophosphorylation and activity of the latter were
abolished (Fig. 3
C). Although active ERK does
phosphorylate this dephosphorylated rSyk (Fig. 3
C, compare samples 5 and 6) on serine residue(s) (Fig. 3
D), the activity of rSyk was only slightly increased (Fig. 3
C, compare samples 4 and 8 and data not shown). This may
indicate that the basal phosphorylation of rSyk is
essential for attaining its full activity. Taken together, these
results may also suggest that the basal tyrosyl
phosphorylation observed in Ag-stimulated RBL-2H3
cells, in which Syk is activated by binding to the
phosphorylated
subunits of Fc
RI (3) or
upon phosphorylation by Lyn (7), is
important for the activity of Syk, which is yet further activated
by ERK.
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Further studies of Syk-ERK relationships provided clear evidence
that these two enzymes directly associate in RBL-2H3 cells. Both
resting or Ag-stimulated RBL-2H3 cells were lysed in 1% Digitonin
lysis buffer, and ERK was immunoprecipitated by polyclonal ERK-specific
Abs. Immunocomplexes were washed twice in 0.2% Digitonin lysis buffer,
once in 0.5 M LiCl, and once in the lysis buffer without detergent and
were subjected to Western blotting with Syk-specific polyclonal Abs.
Syk was found to be associated with ERK in resting as well as in
Ag-stimulated cells (Fig. 4
A).
Significantly, ERK1 was also found in Syk immunocomplexes (Fig. 4
B). When analyzed by Western blotting with a mAb specific
for activated ERK (19), the associated ERK1 (Fig. 4
C, upper panel) was already found to be active
at 1 min after Ag stimulation and remained so as long as 20 min
afterward. This activation pattern was similar to that of the
Ag-induced activation of cytoplasmic ERK1 in these cells (data not
shown). Because no Shc or ribosomal S6 kinases were detected bound to
Syk under these conditions (data not shown), we assume that there is at
least partial ERK1 association with Syk, and that most of the ERK1
molecules (including the cytoplasmic molecules) can be activated upon
Ag stimulation. The whole cell lysate (WCL) shown in Fig. 4
, A and B, exhibited a different pattern of ERK1/2
due to a different source of ERK-specific Abs. Moreover, when RBL-2H3
cells were stably transfected with dominant-negative MEK (K97A-MEK)
(20), the Fc
RI-induced
-hexosaminidase secretion was
suppressed by 50% compared with the responses of cells transfected
with constitutively active MEK (
N-EE-MEK) (21) (data
not shown).
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RI-activated
MAPKs, ERK1 might have the role of phosphorylating Syk, thereby
positively regulating the Fc
RI coupling cascade.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Israel Pecht, Department of Immunology, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. E-mail address: ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: Fc
RI, the type 1 Fc
receptor (for IgE); ERK, extracellular signal-regulated kinase; HS1, hemopoietic lineage cell-specific protein; DNP, dinitrophenol; MAP, mitogen-activated protein; MAPK, MAP kinase; MEK, MAPK/ERK kinase; RBL-2H3, rat basophilic leukemia 2H3 cell line; WCL, whole cell lysate; rSyk, recombinant GST murine Syk. ![]()
Received for publication April 26, 1999. Accepted for publication May 25, 1999.
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R1 and the Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway through Sos and Grb2. J. Biol. Chem. 271:16268.
and release of arachidonic acid in mast cells. J. Biol. Chem. 272:13397.
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