A role for MAP kinase in regulating ectodomain shedding of APLP2 in corneal epithelial cells

2001 ◽  
Vol 281 (2) ◽  
pp. C603-C614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke-Ping Xu ◽  
Driss Zoukhri ◽  
James D. Zieske ◽  
Darlene A. Dartt ◽  
Christian Sergheraert ◽  
...  

We previously reported an increased secretion of amyloid precursor-like protein 2 (APLP2) in the healing corneal epithelium. The present study sought to investigate signal transduction pathways involved in APLP2 shedding in vitro. APLP2 was constitutively shed and released into culture medium in SV40-immortalized human corneal epithelial cells as assessed by Western blotting, flow cytometry, and indirect immunofluorescence. Activation of protein kinase C (PKC) by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) caused significant increases in APLP2 shedding. This was inhibited by staurosporine and a PKC-ε-specific, N-myristoylated peptide inhibitor. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) also induced APLP2 accumulation in culture medium. Basal APLP2 shedding as well as that induced by PMA and EGF was blocked by a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase inhibitor, U-0126. Our results suggest that MAPK activity accounts for basal as well as PKC- and EGF-induced APLP2 shedding. In addition, PKC-ε may be involved in the induction of APLP2 shedding in corneal epithelial cells.

2008 ◽  
Vol 413 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Zeng ◽  
Heidi Sankala ◽  
Xiaoxiao Zhang ◽  
Paul R. Graves

Ago (Argonaute) proteins are essential effectors of RNA-mediated gene silencing. To explore potential regulatory mechanisms for Ago proteins, we examined the phosphorylation of human Ago2. We identified serine-387 as the major Ago2 phosphorylation site in vivo. Phosphorylation of Ago2 at serine-387 was significantly induced by treatment with sodium arsenite or anisomycin, and arsenite-induced phosphorylation was inhibited by a p38 MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) inhibitor, but not by inhibitors of JNK (c-Jun N-terminal kinase) or MEK [MAPK/ERK (extracellular-signal-regulated kinase) kinase]. MAPKAPK2 (MAPK-activated protein kinase-2) phosphorylated bacterially expressed full-length human Ago2 at serine-387 in vitro, but not the S387A mutant. Finally, mutation of serine-387 to an alanine residue or treatment of cells with a p38 MAPK inhibitor reduced the localization of Ago2 to processing bodies. These results suggest a potential regulatory mechanism for RNA silencing acting through Ago2 serine-387 phosphorylation mediated by the p38 MAPK pathway.


2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 130
Author(s):  
N. Z. Saraiva ◽  
C. S. Oliveira ◽  
M. del Collado ◽  
M. R. de Lima ◽  
R. Vantini ◽  
...  

Chemical enucleation using microtubule-depolymerizing drugs is an attractive procedure to simplify the enucleation process in nuclear transfer. The aim of this study was to optimize chemically assisted (CA) and chemically induced (CI) enucleation protocols using metaphase II (MII) and pre-activated bovine oocytes, respectively, and to evaluate the activity of maturation promoting factor (MPF) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) in cytoplasts generated by these techniques. Initially, we determined the shortest effective treatment of MII and activated oocytes with 0.05 μg mL–1 demecolcine. Bovine oocytes in vitro matured (IVM) for 19 h (MII) or activated artificially with 5 μM ionomycin (5 min) and 10 μg mL–1 cycloheximide (5 h) after 26 h IVM were treated with demecolcine and samples were collected at 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 h of treatment. Oocytes were then stained with 10 μg mL–1 Hoechst 33342 and the protrusion or enucleation rates were determined. Next, we evaluated histone H1 and myelin basic protein (MBP) kinases, reflecting MPF and MAPK activities, respectively, in oocytes obtained from these treatments, and for that we used the method described by Kubelka et al. (2000 Biol. Reprod. 62, 292–302). Protrusion and enucleation rates were evaluated by the chi-squared (χ2) test, and MPF and MAPK activities were submitted to ANOVA and Tukey's test at 5% significance. For MII oocytes, effects of demecolcine were observed as early as 15 min, with a significant difference (P < 0.05) between control (12/112, 10.7%) and treated (33/114, 28.9%) groups in relation to protrusion rates. The largest number of protrusions was observed after 1.0 h of treatment (control: 15/113, 13.3%a; treated: 45/111, 40.5%b). In pre-activated oocytes, effects of demecolcine were also observed after 15 min, and in both techniques there were no significant differences between groups treated with demecolcine for 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 h (CA: 40.5 to 52.5% of protrusion; CI: 35.2 to 46.7% of enucleation). In contrast to previous reports in which high concentrations of demecolcine for CA enucleation increased MPF activity, we observed no alterations in the activity of this factor at a demecolcine concentration of 0.05 μg mL–1. Activity of MAPK also did not differ significantly between the control and treated groups throughout evaluation. In the CI technique, a significant difference in MPF activity was observed after 0.5 h (70.3%) and 2.0 h of activation (39.1%), considering that the activity was 100% at the beginning of the evaluation. However, we observed no significant difference between the control and treated groups at any of the time points studied, as verified for MAPK activity. The exact effect of MPF on the nucleus in mammals is not well established. We believe that the use of low concentrations of demecolcine for short periods is less damaging to embryonic development and, until we have a better understanding of the effect of these kinases on the transferred nucleus, we recommend its use for chemical enucleation protocols in bovine. Financial support: FAPESP 2010/20744-6 and 2011/12983-3.


2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 892 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Clay Isom ◽  
Randall S. Prather ◽  
Edmund B. Rucker III

Recently, we demonstrated that a 9-h heat shock of 42°C can have marked stimulatory effects on porcine parthenogenetic embryo development if applied immediately after oocyte activation. Developmental discrepancies between heat-shocked (HS) and non-HS embryos were manifest as early as 3 h after activation, suggesting involvement of maturation promoting factor (MPF) and/or mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). Analysis of cdc2 kinase activity showed that MPF inactivation occurred at similar rates in HS and control embryos upon oocyte activation. However, MAPK dephosphorylation was accelerated in HS embryos compared with controls. Okadaic acid, a protein phosphatase inhibitor, maintained MAPK activity at high levels in both non-HS and HS embryos and sensitised HS embryos to the effects of elevated temperatures. No increase in heat shock proteins was observed in pronuclear-stage HS embryos. These data suggest that the acceleration of development observed in HS porcine parthenogenetic embryos is associated with a precocious inactivation of the MAPK signalling cascade. The faster cleavage divisions observed in HS embryos may be linked physiologically to their enhanced developmental potential in vitro.


Zygote ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hideki Tatemoto ◽  
Norio Muto

The decrease in maturation-promoting factor (MPF) activity precedes that in mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activity after egg activation, but the cellular functions of this delayed inactivation of MAPK are still unclear. The present study was conducted to examine the essential role of MAPK activity for supporting the transition from metaphase to interphase in porcine oocytes matured in vitro. The increases in the phosphorylated forms of MAPK and the activities of MAPK and histone H1 kinase (H1K) were shown in oocytes arrested at the metaphase II (MII) stage. After additional incubation of MII-arrested oocytes in medium with added U0126, a specific inhibitor of MAPK kinase, 24% of oocytes completed the second meiotic division and underwent entry into interphase with pronucleus (PN) formation, but not second polar body (PB-2) emission. The intensities of the phosphorylated forms of MAPK and the activities of MAPK and H1K in matured oocytes treated with U0126 were significantly decreased by the treatment with U0126. Electrostimulation to induce artificial activation caused both H1K and MAPK inactivation; the inactivation of H1K preceded the inactivation of MAPK and sustained high levels of MAPK activity were detected during the period of PB-2 emission. However, the time sequence required for MAPK inactivation was significantly reduced by the addition of U0126 to the culture medium following electrostimulation, resulting in the dramatic inactivation of MAPK distinct from that of H1K. In these oocytes, PB-2 emission was markedly inhibited but little difference was found in the time course of PN formation compared with oocytes not treated with U0126. These findings suggest that the decrease in MAPK activity is partly involved in driving matured oocytes out of metaphase to induce PN development, and that the delayed MAPK inactivation after the onset of MPF inactivation in activated oocytes has a crucial role for PB-2 emission to accomplish the transition from meiosis to mitosis.


2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 291
Author(s):  
S. Ebeling ◽  
C. Boesebeck ◽  
B. Meinecke

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) is involved in many signal processes within eukaryotic organisms. Its active form is phosphorylated. For meiotic resumption in oocytes the MAPK cascade plays a central role, because it participates in the transfer of the extracellular gonadotropin signal into the nucleus. In pigs it could be shown that for a gonadotropin-induced germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD), an activation of MAPK in oocytes is not essential, but in the surrounding cumulus cells the MAPK has to be phosphorylated (Ohashi et al. 2003 Biol. Reprod. 68, 604–609). Because cumulus cells are very important for signal transfer, the present investigation dealt with the relevance of porcine cumulus cells and the phosphorylation of MAPK for the resumption of meiosis. Oocytes of slaughtered pigs were collected and cultured (medium: TCM 199, insulin, l-glutamine, gentamycin, 20% (v/v) FCS, and with or without 2.5 μg/mL FSH and 5.0 μg/mL LH). The proteins of isolated cumulus cells and oocytes were separated by gel electrophoresis (cumulus cells of 10 cumulus-oocyte complexes and 40 oocytes per lane, respectively) followed by an immunoblot with antibodies against MAPK and p90rsk (ERK 1 (sc-94) and Rsk-1 (sc-231), respectively; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA, USA). Alternatively the nuclear maturation was determined by orceine staining. The following results were achieved: The phosphorylation of MAPK in cumulus cells began very early during the in vitro maturation period. This was demonstrated already after 0.5 h unlike in oocytes where phosphorylation of MAPK does not occur until 18 h. The phosphorylation in cumulus cells occurs both in the presence and in the absence of FSH/LH, but without FSH/LH almost no GVBD occurs (after 26 h IVM: 86.9% GV oocytes, n = 59). The phosphorylation in the absence of gonadotropins could be caused by components of FCS, but with an exchange against polyvinylpyrrolidone (0.3%), the phosphorylation without FSH/LH still existed. The specificity was examined with the MAPK kinase inhibitor U0126. A concentration of 10 μM U0126 prevented GVBD and phosphorylation of MAPK in oocytes. However, in cumulus cells the phosphorylation of MAPK was reduced only minimally. In the presence of 50 μM U0126, a distinct decrease was observed during the first hours of maturation. But after 26 h phosphorylated MAPK appeared in cumulus cells despite the high concentration of U0126. The p90rsk is an important substrate of MAPK, which is phosphorylated by activated MAPK in oocytes. In our investigations we could detect only unphosphorylated forms of p90rsk in the cumulus cells. It seems that there are different ways for phosphorylation of MAPK to occur in cumulus cells, but they do not have the same consequences. The phosphorylation of MAPK in cumulus cells is necessary for a gonadotropin induced meiotic resumption, but phosphorylation does not always lead to GVBD. Furthermore, the p90rsk appears not to have the same importance as a substrate of MAPK in cumulus cells as in oocytes.


Author(s):  
Eva M. Goetz ◽  
Levi A. Garraway

Overview: Anticancer drug resistance remains a crucial impediment to the care of many patients with cancer. Although the exact mechanisms of resistance may differ for each therapy, common mechanisms of resistance predominate, including drug inactivation or modification, mutation of the target protein, reduced drug accumulation, or bypass of target inhibition. With the discovery and use of targeted therapies (such as small-molecule kinase inhibitors), resistance has received renewed attention—especially in light of the dramatic responses that may emerge from such therapeutics in particular genetic or molecular contexts. Recently, the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway has become exemplary in this regard, since it is activated in many different cancers. Drugs targeting RAF and MAPK kinase (MEK) are currently in clinical trials for the treatment of several types of cancer. Vemurafenib, a selective RAF kinase inhibitor recently approved for the treatment of BRAF(V600E) melanoma, shows strong efficacy initially; however, the development of resistance is nearly ubiquitous. In vitro testing and analysis of patient samples have uncovered several mechanisms of resistance to RAF inhibition. Surprisingly, mutations in the drug-binding pocket have not thus far been observed; however, other alterations at the level of RAF, as well as downstream activation of MEK and bypass of MEK/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling altogether, confer resistance to vemurafenib. Looking forward, combined RAF and MEK inhibitor treatments may improve efficacy—yet we must anticipate mechanisms of resistance to this combination as well. Therefore, understanding and/or determining the mechanism of resistance are paramount to effective cancer treatment.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document