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Cutting Edge |

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* Section of Molecular Medicine, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, and Departments of
Internal Medicine,
Biochemistry, and
Immunology/Microbiology, Rush Medical College at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Lukes Medical Center, Chicago, IL 60612; and
¶ Genetics Department, Medicine Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20889
activated protein kinase; SHP-1, SH2 domain-bearing protein tyrosine phosphatase-1; HA, hemagglutinin; RIPA, radioimmunoprecipitation assay.
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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The ubiquitination process is regulated by a series of enzymes (termed E1, E2, and E3) which, in cyclic steps, transfer the ubiquitin (Ub) polypeptide to a host protein as a marker for degradation by the 26S proteasome (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10). The Cbl family of proteins consists of an N-terminal (variant) Src homology 2 (SH2) domain, a RING finger domain, and a C-terminal proline-rich region with potential tyrosine phosphorylation sites. It is known that Cbl functions as an E3 Ub ligase with a RING finger domain that recruits an Ub-conjugating enzyme (E2), and an SH2 domain that recognizes target proteins for Ub conjugation (5, 11, 12, 13, 14).
Peripheral T cells from Cbl-b-/- mice show enhanced proliferation and IL-2 production in response to TCR stimulation. Furthermore, the loss of Cbl-b results in an increased susceptibility to the development of autoimmunity (15, 16), supporting the exciting concept that Cbl-b is a key regulator of susceptibility to autoimmunity. Interestingly, loss of Cbl-b restores impaired T cell proliferation in CD28-/- mice (15, 16), suggesting that Cbl-b may be involved in CD28-dependent T cell activation. In support of this idea, Cbl-b has been shown to selectively regulate activity of Vav (15, 16), which we and others have shown can be synergistically activated by CD28 costimulation (17, 18).
The mechanism underlying the negative regulation of TCR
signaling by Cbl proteins has recently been described (11, 19, 20). Cbl-b ubiquitinates the p85 regulatory subunit of
phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-K) (19, 21), resulting
in its failure to associate with the CD28 and TCR
chain
(21). It has recently been reported that Cbl-b not
only targets other proteins for ubiquitination, but also itself can
undergo ubiquitination (22). These findings prompted us to
investigate whether CD28 costimulation favors ubiquitination and
degradation of Cbl-b which sets the threshold for T cell activation. We
now report that CD28 costimulation induces Cbl-b ubiquitination and
then targets Cbl-b for degradation in the 26S proteasome. Our data
provide a possible explanation for the suppression of the
CD28-deficiency in T cell activation and the phenotype of the
Cbl-b-/- mice.
| Materials and Methods |
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Female Wt and CD28-/- BALB/c mice were purchased from The Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME). Mice were used for experiments at 610 wk of age. Jurkat T cells were provided by Dr. T. L. Delovitch (The John P. Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada).
Reagents
Purified and biotinylated anti-mouse CD3 (145-2C11),
anti-mouse CD28 (37.51), and biotinylated anti-mouse LFA-1
(M17/4), anti-human CD3 (HIT3a), and anti-human CD28 (CD28.2)
mAbs were purchased from BD PharMingen (San Diego, CA). Abs against
Cbl-b, Ub, c-Cbl, Lck, ZAP-70, Vav, phospholipase C (PLC)-
1, p38
mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), SH2 domain-bearing protein
tyrosine phosphatase-1 (SHP-1), PI3-K (p85), His, and hemagglutinin
(HA) were purchased from Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Santa Cruz, CA).
Anti-p44/42 MAPK was purchased from New England Biolabs (Beverly, MA).
T cell enrichment columns were obtained from R&D Systems (Minneapolis,
MN). HRP-conjugated goat anti-rabbit IgG or rabbit anti-mouse
IgG were purchased from Kirkegaard & Perry Laboratories (Gaithersburg,
MD). Rabbit anti-hamster IgG, rabbit anti-mouse IgG, and
streptavidin were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis,
MO).
Plasmids
Cbl-b cDNA encoding full-length Cbl-b with an HA epitope in pCEFL was described previously (22). His6-tagged Ub plasmid was a gift from Dr. D. Bohmann (University of Rochester, Rochester, NY).
Cell culture and transfection
Jurkat T cells were cultured in RPMI 1640 (Sigma-Aldrich) supplemented with 10% FBS and penicillin and streptomycin. To detect Cbl-b ubiquitination in Jurkat T cells, cells were transfected with the HA-tagged Cbl-b and His6-tagged Ub by electroporation (240V, 960 µF; Bio-Rad, Richmond, CA). After 48 h, transfected cells were collected and subjected to stimulation.
T cell isolation and activation
Splenic T cells from naive Wt and
CD28-/- mice were isolated (purity
95% as
determined by FACS analysis of CD3+ cell surface
expression) on T cell enrichment columns. For in vitro activation, T
cells (1 x 107/ml) were stimulated for the
various time periods indicated by plate-bound anti-CD3 (2 µg/ml
or as indicated) and/or soluble anti-CD28 (1 µg/ml or as
indicated) mAbs in RPMI 1640 supplemented with 10 mM HEPES, 0.1 mg/ml
streptomycin, 100 U/ml penicillin, 0.05 mM 2-ME, and 2 mM glutamine
(all from Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY). For short-term T cell
activation, Wt T cells were incubated with anti-CD3 (2 µg/ml) and
anti-CD28 (1 µg/ml) mAbs on ice, followed by cross-linking with
rabbit-anti-hamster IgG (10 µg/ml). Alternatively, Wt and
CD28-/- T cells were incubated for 5 min at
37°C with biotinylated anti-CD3 or biotinylated anti-CD3 (2
µg/ml) plus biotinylated anti-LFA-1 (2 µg/ml) mAbs, and
followed by cross-linking for 5 and 15 min at 37°C with streptavidin
(10 µg/ml). For stimulation of Jurkat T cells, 2 x
107/ml transiently transfected Jurkat T cells
were incubated for 30 min on ice with anti-human CD3 (2 µg/ml)
and anti-CD3 plus anti-CD28, followed by cross-linking for 5,
15, and 30 min at 37°C with rabbit anti-mouse IgG. The cells were
lysed in 1% Nonidet P-40 lysis buffer (10 mM Tris, pH 7.5, 150 mM
NaCl, 2 mM EGTA, 50 mM
-glycerophosphate, 2 mM
Na3VO4, 10 mM NaF, 1 mM
DTT, 1 mM PMSF, 10 µg/ml leupeptin, and 10 µg/ml aprotinin) or in
radioimmunoprecipitation assay (RIPA) buffer (25 mM Tris, pH 7.4, 150
mM NaCl, 5 mM EDTA, 1% Nonidet P-40, 1% sodium deoxycholate, 0.5%
SDS, 100 µM Na3VO4, 1 mM
NaF, 1 mM PMSF, 10 µg/ml aprotonin, 10 µg/ml leupeptin) where
indicated.
T cell proliferation assay
Splenic T cells (2 x 106/ml) from Wt and CD28-/- mice were cultured for 48 h at 37°C in round-bottom 96-well plates precoated with anti-CD3 mAb (040 µg/ml). The cells were pulsed with 1 µCi [3H]thymidine, and harvested 16 h later. The radioactivity was quantitated using a Wallac 1205 Betaplate beta liquid scintillation counter (PerkinElmer-Wallac, Gaithersburg, MD).
Immunoprecipitation and Western blot
Protein concentrations in the cell lysates were determined using a bicinchoninic acid assay kit (Pierce, Rockford, IL). The conditions for immunoprecipitation and immunoblotting were described previously (18).
Quantitative real-time RT-PCR assays
Total RNA was extracted from cells with TRIzol reagents (Life
Technologies, Gaithersburg, MD), and reverse-transcripted using
SuperScript RT kit (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA). Real-time RT-PCR was
performed using Cepheid Smart Cycler (Cepheid, Sunnyvale, CA) applying
SYBR Green I fluorescent dye to detect the PCR product. The following
primers used were: forward primer 5'-TTCCAGATGGCAAACTCAATG-3' and
reverse primer 5'-TACATTCTCTCCTTGCCTTCTTTA-3' for Cbl-b, and the
forward primer of 5'-CTGCCCAGAACATCATCC-3' and the reverse primer
5'-AGCCGTATTCATTGTCATACC-3' for GAPDH. Templates were initially
denatured at 95°C for 5 min, which was followed by 45 cycles of
amplification at 95°C for 40 s, 54°C for 40 s, and 72°C
for 40 s for Cbl-b, and at 95°C for 40 s, 58.9°C for
40 s, and 72°C for 40 s for GAPDH. The relative differences
among the samples at different time points were determined using the

cycle threshold method as described in the Applied Biosystems
protocol for RT-PCR (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA).
| Results and Discussion |
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It is possible that many proteins may undergo ubiquitination upon CD28
costimulation, and that Cbl-b ubiquitination and degradation may not be
unique for CD28 costimulation. To exclude this possibility, several
signaling molecules involved in TCR- and CD28-signaling pathways were
detected for their ubiquitination and degradation. No ubiquitination of
Lck, ZAP-70, SHP-1, p44/p42 MAPK, p38 MAPK, PLC-
1, Vav, and
c-Cbl was observed upon CD28 costimulation (data not shown).
Consistent with this result, no decreases in the amounts of Lck,
ZAP-70, SHP-1, p44/p42 MAPK, p38 MAPK, PLC-
1, Vav, and
c-Cbl were detected within 2 h following CD28
costimulation (Fig. 2
F). It is also possible that Cbl-b
ubiquitination can be induced by coligation of other coreceptors. To
test this, Wt and CD28-/- T cells were
incubated with biotinylated anti-CD3 and biotinylated anti-CD3
plus biotinylated anti-LFA-1 mAbs followed by cross-linking with
streptavidin, and lysed in RIPA buffer. Cbl-b ubiquitination was
determined. Costimulation of Wt T cells with LFA-1 did not enhance
CD3-induced Cbl-b ubiquitination. Consistent with this observation,
there was no Cbl-b ubiquitination observed in
CD28-/- T cells upon LFA-1 costimulation (Fig. 2
G). These data indicate that Cbl-b ubiquitination is not
shared by other costimulatory receptor(s). Taken together, our results
indicate that Cbl-b ubiquitination and degradation is a unique
phenomenon for CD28 costimulation.
To confirm that CD28-mediated Cbl-b ubiquitination regulates the
threshold for T cell activation, naive Wt T cells were first stimulated
for 1 h with constant amounts of anti-CD3 in the presence of
varying concentrations of anti-CD28 mAb. The cells were lysed,
immunoprecipitated with anti-Cbl-b mAb, and then blotted with
anti-Ub mAb. Stimulation by anti-CD3 together with increasing
concentrations of anti-CD28 mAb induced a dose-dependent
enhancement of ubiquitination of Cbl-b in Wt T cells (Fig. 3
). In support of this result,
stimulation with higher concentrations of anti-CD3 mAb enhanced
ubiquitination of Cbl-b in CD28-/- T cells
(Fig. 3
), which correlated with an anti-CD3 dose-dependent increase
in T cell proliferation (Fig. 1
). This result confirmed that triggering
TCR with very high amounts of anti-CD3 could, in part, overcome the
requirement of CD28 costimulation for Cbl-b ubiquitination.
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in a proteolysis-independent
manner (21). These observations suggest that inactivating
Cbl-b by its ubiquitination induced by TCR stimulation may result in a
decrease in PI3-K ubiquitination. To test this, Wt and
CD28-/- T cells were incubated with
anti-CD3, cross-linked with rabbit anti-hamster IgG for 1, 5,
15 and 30 min, and lysed in RIPA buffer. The cell lysates were
immunoprecipitated with anti-PI3-K (p85), and blotted with
anti-Ub. Interestingly, the highest level of PI3-K ubiquitination
was observed in both Wt and CD28-/- T cells
without stimulation (Fig. 4
.
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| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Jian Zhang, Section of Molecular Medicine, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Lukes Medical Center, Cohn Research Building, Room 724, 1735 West Harrison Street, Chicago, IL 60612. E-mail address: jzhang1{at}rush.edu ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: Wt, wild type; Ub, ubiquitin; SH2, Src homology 2; PI3-K, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase; PLC, phospholipase C; MAPK, mitogen- ![]()
Received for publication March 11, 2002. Accepted for publication July 9, 2002.
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