Cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis hypersusceptibility as a consequence of Lck deficiency in nontransformed T lymphocytes.
By using antisense RNA, Lck-deficient transfectants of a T helper 2 (Th2) clone have been derived and shown to have a qualitative defect in the T cell receptor signaling pathway. A striking feature observed only in Lck-deficient T cells was the presence of a constitutively tyrosine-phosphorylated 32-kDa protein. In the present study, we provide evidence that this aberrantly hyperphosphorylated protein is p34(cdc2) (cdc2) a key regulator of cell-cycle progression. Lck-deficient transfectants expressed high levels of cdc2 protein and its regulatory units, cyclins A and B. The majority of cdc2, however, was tyrosine-phosphorylated and therefore enzymatically inactive. The transfectants were significantly larger than the parental cells and contained 4N DNA. These results establish that a deficiency in Lck leads to a cell-cycle arrest in G2. Moreover, transfected cells were hypersusceptible to apoptosis when activated through the T cell receptor. Importantly, however, this hypersusceptibility was largely reversed in the presence of T cell growth factors. These findings provide evidence that, in mature T lymphocytes, cell-cycle progression through the G2-M check point requires expression of the Src-family protein tyrosine kinase, Lck. This requirement is Lck-specific; it is observed under conditions in which the closely related Fyn kinase is expressed normally, evincing against a redundancy of function between these two kinases.
Section of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
B K
BK
al-Ramadi
H
H
Zhang
A L
AL
Bothwell
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000276:immunology*; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000276:immunology*; D019860:Lymphocyte Specific Protein Tyrosine Kinase p56(lck) / Q000235:genetics*; D051379:Mice; D010766:Phosphorylation; D011233:Precipitin Tests; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*
D019860:Lymphocyte Specific Protein Tyrosine Kinase p56(lck)