E2F-1 overexpression in cardiomyocytes induces downregulation of p21CIP1 and p27KIP1 and release of active cyclin-dependent kinases in the presence of insulin-like growth factor I.

The heart is a postmitotic organ unable to regenerate after injury. The mechanisms controlling cell cycle arrest in cardiomyocytes are still unknown. Adenoviral delivery of E2F-1 to primary rat cardiomyocytes resulted in an increase in the expression of key cell cycle activators and apoptosis in >90% of the cells. However, insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) rescued cardiomyocytes from E2F-1-induced apoptosis. Furthermore, overexpression of E2F-1 in the presence of IGF-I induced the specific downregulation of total p21(CIP1) and p27(KIP1) protein levels and their dissociation from cyclin-dependent kinases (cdks). In contrast, p16(INK4) and p57(KIP2) protein levels and their association with cdks remained unaltered. The dissociation of p21(CIP1) and p27(KIP1) from their cdk complexes correlated well with the activation of cdk2, cdk4, and cdk6 and the release from cell cycle arrest. Under these circumstances, the number of cardiomyocytes in S phase rose from 1.2% to 23%. These results indicate that IGF-I renders cardiomyocytes permissive for cell cycle reentry. Finally, the specific downregulation of p21(CIP1) and p27(KIP1) further suggests their key role in the maintenance of cell cycle arrest in cardiomyocytes.

Cytokines and growth factors signal through tyrosine phosphorylation of a family of related transcription factors.

The ability of cytokines to activate distinct but overlapping sets of genes defines their characteristic biological response. We now show that IFN gamma, IL-3, IL-4, IL-6, erythropoietin, EGF, and CSF-1 activate differing members of a family of latent cytoplasmic transcription factors. Although these factors have distinct physical and functional properties and exhibit different patterns of expression, they share many important features, including recognition of a related set of enhancer elements, rapid activation, tyrosine phosphorylation, and cross-reactivity to antibodies against p91, a cytoplasmic signaling protein activated by IFN alpha, IFN gamma, and IL-6. These shared features point to either parallel or common patterns of signal transduction. A general model of cytokine signal transduction is presented, in which receptor-associated tyrosine kinases activate ligand-specific members of a family of signal-transducing factors. Once activated, these factors carry their signals to the nucleus, where they bind a family of related enhancer elements.

The interleukin-6-activated acute-phase response factor is antigenically and functionally related to members of the signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) family.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6), leukemia inhibitory factor, oncostatin M, IL-11, and ciliary neurotropic factor are a family of cytokines and neuronal differentiation factors which bind to composite plasma membrane receptors sharing the signal transducing subunit gp130. We have shown recently that IL-6 and leukemia inhibitory factor rapidly activate a latent cytoplasmic transcription factor, acute-phase response factor (APRF), by tyrosine phosphorylation, which then binds to IL-6 response elements of various IL-6 target genes. Here we demonstrate that APRF is activated by all cytokines acting through gp130 and is detected in a wide variety of cell types, indicating a central role of this transcription factor in gp130-mediated signaling. APRF activation is also observed in vitro upon addition of IL-6 to cell homogenates. Protein tyrosine kinase inhibitors block both the tyrosine phosphorylation and DNA binding of APRF. The factor was purified to homogeneity from rat liver and shown to consist of a single 87-kDa polypeptide, while two forms (89 and 87 kDa) are isolated from human hepatoma cells. As reported earlier, the binding sequence specificity of APRF is shared by gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) activation factor, which is formed by the Stat91 protein. Partial amino acid sequence obtained from purified rat APRF demonstrated that it is likely to be related to Stat91. In fact, an antiserum raised against the amino-terminal portion of Stat91 cross-reacted with APRF, suggesting the relatedness of APRF and Stat91. Altogether, these data indicate that APRF belongs to a growing family of Stat-related proteins and that IFN-gamma and IL-6 use similar signaling pathways to activate IFN-gamma activation factor and APRF, respectively.

The signalling pathways of interleukin-6 and gamma interferon converge by the activation of different transcription factors which bind to common responsive DNA elements.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) induce a partially overlapping set of genes, including the genes for interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF-1), intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), and the acute-phase protein alpha 2-macroglobulin. We report here that the rat alpha 2-macroglobulin promoter is activated by IFN-gamma in human hepatoma (HepG2) cells and that the IFN-gamma response element maps to the same site previously defined as the acute-phase response element (APRE), which binds the IL-6-activated transcription factor APRF (acute-phase response factor). As was reported for fibroblasts, the IFN-gamma-regulated transcription factor GAF is phosphorylated at tyrosine after IFN-gamma treatment of HepG2 cells. IFN-gamma posttranslationally activates a protein which specifically binds to the alpha 2-macroglobulin APRE. This protein is shown to be identical or closely related to GAF. Although APRF and GAF are shown to represent different proteins, their binding sequence specificities are very similar. APRF and GAF bind equally well to the APRE sequences of various acute-phase protein genes as well as to the IFN-gamma response elements of the IRF-1, ICAM-1, and other IFN-gamma-inducible genes. Transient transfection analysis revealed that the IFN-gamma response elements of the IRF-1 and ICAM-1 promoters are able to confer responsiveness to both IFN-gamma and IL-6 onto a heterologous promoter. Therefore, APRF and GAF are likely to be involved in the transcriptional induction of these immediate-early genes by IL-6 and IFN-gamma, respectively. Taken together, these results demonstrate that two functionally distinct hormones, IL-6 and IFN-gamma, act through common regulatory elements to which different transcription factors sharing almost the same sequence specificity bind.

Association of transcription factor APRF and protein kinase Jak1 with the interleukin-6 signal transducer gp130.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6), leukemia inhibitory factor, oncostatin M, interleukin-11, and ciliary neurotrophic factor bind to receptor complexes that share the signal transducer gp130. Upon binding, the ligands rapidly activate DNA binding of acute-phase response factor (APRF), a protein antigenically related to the p91 subunit of the interferon-stimulated gene factor-3 alpha (ISGF-3 alpha). These cytokines caused tyrosine phosphorylation of APRF and ISGF-3 alpha p91. Protein kinases of the Jak family were also rapidly tyrosine phosphorylated, and both APRF and Jak1 associated with gp130. These data indicate that Jak family protein kinases may participate in IL-6 signaling and that APRF may be activated in a complex with gp130.

Acute-phase response factor, a nuclear factor binding to acute-phase response elements, is rapidly activated by interleukin-6 at the posttranslational level.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is known to be a major mediator of the acute-phase response in liver. We show here that IL-6 triggers the rapid activation of a nuclear factor, termed acute-phase response factor (APRF), both in rat liver in vivo and in human hepatoma (HepG2) cells in vitro. APRF bound to IL-6 response elements in the 5'-flanking regions of various acute-phase protein genes (e.g., the alpha 2-macroglobulin, fibrinogen, and alpha 1-acid glycoprotein genes). These elements contain a characteristic hexanucleotide motif, CTGGGA, known to be required for the IL-6 responsiveness of these genes. Analysis of the binding specificity of APRF revealed that it is different from NF-IL6 and NF-kappa B, transcription factors known to be regulated by cytokines and involved in the transcriptional regulation of acute-phase protein genes. In HepG2 cells, activation of APRF was observed within minutes after stimulation with IL-6 or leukemia-inhibitory factor and did not require ongoing protein synthesis. Therefore, a preexisting inactive form of APRF is activated by a posttranslational mechanism. We present evidence that this activation occurs in the cytoplasm and that a phosphorylation is involved. These results lead to the conclusions that APRF is an immediate target of the IL-6 signalling cascade and is likely to play a central role in the transcriptional regulation of many IL-6-induced genes.

Purification and properties of a fucoidan-binding protein from human placenta and its identification as immunoglobulin G.

1. A fucoidan-binding protein from human placenta was purified by affinity chromatography on immobilized fucoidan. 2. Characterization of molecular and immunological properties and peptide mapping indicated that the fucoidan-binding protein is an immunoglobulin G. 3. Cleavage with papain and transblot analysis with labelled fucoidan ascertained binding properties of the F(ab) fragments. 4. The specificity for fucoidan was furthermore substantiated by hapten inhibition of haemagglutination as well as by solid-phase assays with biotinylated fucoidan as ligand. The results emphasized the importance of structural features instead of simple ionic interactions. 5. Chemical modification with group-specific reagents to lysine, arginine, tryptophan, tyrosine and histidine resulted in substantial inactivation, their impact being markedly reduced by the presence of fucoidan in the cases of lysine, arginine and tryptophan.