Abstract: Mitosis is triggered by the abrupt dephosphorylation of inhibitory Y15 and T14 residues of cyclin B1-bound cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)1 that is also phosphorylated at T161 in its activation loop. The sequence of events leading to the accumulation of fully phosphorylated cyclin B1-CDK1 complexes remains unclear. 2D-gel electrophoresis allowed us to discriminate whether T14, Y15 and T161 phosphorylations occur on same CDK1 molecules and to characterize the physiological occurrence of their seven phosphorylation combinations. Intriguingly, in cyclin B1-CDK1, the activating T161 phosphorylation never occurred without the T14 phosphorylation. This strict association could not be uncoupled by a substantial reduction of T14 phosphorylation in response to Myt1 knockdown, suggesting some causal relationship. However, T14 phosphorylation was not directly required for T161 phosphorylation, because Myt1 knockdown did uncouple them when cyclin B1-CDK1 complexes were prevented to accumulate in cytoplasm by leptomycin B. The coupling mechanism thus depended on unperturbed cyclin B1-CDK1 traffic. The unsuspected observation that the activating phosphorylation of cyclin B1-CDK1 was tightly coupled to its T14 phosphorylation, but not Y15 phosphorylation, suggests a mechanism protecting from premature activation by constitutively active CDK-activating kinase. This explained opposite impacts of reduced expression of Myt1 and Wee1 with only the latter inducing catastrophic mitoses.
Abstract: Cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4 is a master integrator that couples mitogenic/oncogenic signalling cascades with the inactivation of the central oncosuppressor Rb and the cell cycle. Its activation requires binding to a D-type cyclin and then T-loop phosphorylation at T172 by the only identified CDK-activating kinase in animal cells, cyclin H-CDK7. In contrast with the observed constitutive activity of cyclin H-CDK7, we have recently identified the T172-phosphorylation of cyclin D-bound CDK4 as a crucial cell cycle regulatory target. Intriguingly, the homologous T177-phosphorylation of CDK6 is weak in several systems and does not present this regulation. In this Perspective, we review the recent advances and debates on the multistep mechanism leading to activation of D-type cyclin-CDK4 complexes. This involves a re-evaluation of the implication of Cip/Kip CDK "inhibitors" and CDK7 in this process.
Abstract: The concept of cancer stem cells (CSC) embodies two aspects: the stem cell as the initial target of the oncogenic process and the existence of two populations of cells in cancers: the CSC and derived cells. The second is discussed in this review. CSC are defined as cells having three properties: a selectively endowed tumorigenic capacity, an ability to recreate the full repertoire of cancer cells of the parent tumor and the expression of a distinctive repertoire of surface biomarkers. In operational terms, the CSC are among all cancer cells those able to initiate a xenotransplant. Other explicit or implicit assumptions exist, including the concept of CSC as a single unique infrequent population of cells. To avoid such assumptions, we propose to use the operational term tumor-propagating cells (TPC); indeed, the cells that initiate transplants did not initiate the cancer. The experimental evidence supporting the explicit definition is analyzed. Cancers indeed contain a fraction of cells mainly responsible for the tumor development. However, there is evidence that these cells do not represent one homogenous population. Moreover, there is no evidence that the derived cells result from an asymmetric, qualitative and irreversible process. A more general model is proposed of which the CSC model could be one extreme case. We propose that the TPC are multiple evolutionary selected cancer cells with the most competitive properties [maintained by (epi-)genetic mechanisms], at least partially reversible, quantitative rather than qualitative and resulting from a stochastic rather than deterministic process.
Abstract: How cAMP-dependent protein kinases [protein kinase A (PKA)] transduce the mitogenic stimulus elicited by TSH in thyroid cells to late activation of cyclin D3-cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) remains enigmatic. Here we show in PC Cl3 rat thyroid cells that TSH/cAMP, like insulin, activates the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)-raptor complex (mTORC1) leading to phosphorylation of S6K1 and 4E-BP1. mTORC1-dependent S6K1 phosphorylation in response to both insulin and cAMP required amino acids, whereas inhibition of AMP-activated protein kinase and glycogen synthase kinase 3 enhanced insulin but not cAMP effects. Unlike insulin, TSH/cAMP did not activate protein kinase B or induce tuberous sclerosis complex 2 phosphorylation at T1462 and Y1571. However, like insulin, TSH/cAMP produced a stable increase in mTORC1 kinase activity that was associated with augmented 4E-BP1 binding to raptor. This could be caused in part by T246 phosphorylation of PRAS40, which was found as an in vitro substrate of PKA. Both in PC Cl3 cells and primary dog thyrocytes, rapamycin inhibited DNA synthesis and retinoblastoma protein phosphorylation induced by TSH and insulin. Although rapamycin reduced cyclin D3 accumulation, the abundance of cyclin D3-CDK4 complexes was not affected. However, rapamycin inhibited the activity of these complexes by decreasing the TSH and insulin-mediated stimulation of activating T172 phosphorylation of CDK4. We propose that mTORC1 activation by TSH, at least in part through PKA-dependent phosphorylation of PRAS40, crucially contributes to mediate cAMP-dependent mitogenesis by regulating CDK4 T172-phosphorylation.
Abstract: The study of normal signal transduction pathways regulating the proliferation and differentiation of a cell type allows to predict and to understand the perversions of these pathways which lead to tumorigenesis. In the case of the human thyroid cell, three cascades are mostly involved in tumorigenesis: The pathways and genetic events affecting them are described. Caveats in the use of models and the interpretation of results are formulated and the still pending questions are outlined.
Abstract: CONTEXT: Dominant activating mutations of the TSH receptor are the cause of familial nonautoimmune hyperthyroidism (FNAH) (inherited mutations affecting the whole gland since embryogenesis) and the majority of hyperfunctioning autonomous adenomas (AAs) (somatic mutations affecting only one cell later in the adulthood). OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was defining the functional and molecular phenotypes of FNAH and comparing them with the ones of AA. DESIGN: Functional phenotypes were determined in vitro and molecular phenotypes by hybridization on microarray slides. PATIENTS: Nine patients with FNAH were investigated, six for functional in vitro study of the tissue and five for gene expression. RESULTS: Iodide metabolism, H(2)O(2), cAMP, and inositol phosphate generation in FNAH slices stimulated or not with TSH were normal. The mitogenic response of cultured FNAH thyrocytes to TSH was normal but more sensitive to the hormone. Gene expression profiles of FNAH and AAs showed that among 474 genes significantly regulated in FNAH, 93% were similarly regulated in AAs. Besides, 783 genes were regulated only in AAs. Bioinformatic analysis pointed out common down-regulations of genes involved in immune response, cell/cell and cell/matrix adhesions, and apoptosis. Pathways up-regulated only in AAs mainly involve diverse biosyntheses. These results are consonant with the larger growth of AAs than FNAH tissues. CONCLUSIONS: Whether hereditary or somatic after birth, activating mutations of the TSH receptor have the same qualitative consequences on the thyroid cell phenotype, but somatic mutations in AAs have a much stronger effect than FNAH mutations. Both are variants of one disease: genetic hyperthyroidism.
Abstract: The Ras/Raf/MEK/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathways are aberrantly activated in many tumors, including highly proliferative glioblastomas, but how they are wired with the cell cycle remains imperfectly understood. Inhibitors of MEK/ERK and mTOR pathways are tested as anticancer agents. They are generally considered to induce a G1 cell cycle arrest through down-regulation of D-type cyclins and up-regulation of p27(kip1). Here, we examined the effect of targeting mTOR by rapamycin and/or MEK by PD184352 in human glioblastoma cell lines. In combination, these drugs cooperatively and potently inhibited the G1-S transition and retinoblastoma protein phosphorylation. Their cooperation could not be explained by their partial and differential inhibitory effects on cyclin D1 or D3 but instead by their synergistic inhibition of the activating T172 phosphorylation of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4. This appeared independent of p27 and unrelated to weak modulations of the CDK-activating kinase activity. The T172 phosphorylation of CDK4 thus appears as a crucial node integrating the activity of both MEK/ERK and mTOR pathways. Combined inhibition of both pathways should be considered as a promising strategy for treatment of tumors harboring a deregulated CDK4 activity. [Cancer Res 2009;69(11):4577-81].
Abstract: The homologous cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK) CDK4 and CDK6 integrate mitogenic and oncogenic signaling cascades with the cell cycle. Their activation requires binding to a D-type cyclin and then T-loop phosphorylation at T172 and T177 (respectively) by the only CDK-activating kinase identified in animal cells, cyclin H-CDK7. At odds with the existing data showing the constitutive activity of CDK7, we have recently identified the T172 phosphorylation of cyclin D-bound CDK4 as a crucial cell cycle regulatory target. Here we show that T172 phosphorylation of CDK4 is conditioned by its unique proline 173 residue. In contrast to CDK4, CDK6 does not contain such a proline and, unexpectedly, remained poorly phosphorylated and active in a variety of cells. Mutations of proline 173 did not adversely affect CDK4 activation by CDK7, but in cells they abolished CDK4 T172 phosphorylation and activity. Conversely, substituting a proline for the corresponding residue of CDK6 enforced its complete, apparently cyclin-independent T177 phosphorylation and dramatically increased its activity. These results lead us to propose that CDK4 might not be phosphorylated by CDK7 in intact cells but is more likely phosphorylated by another, presumably proline-directed kinase(s). Moreover, they provide a new model of a potentially oncogenic activating mutation of a CDK.
Abstract: How cyclic AMP (cAMP) could positively or negatively regulate G1 phase progression in different cell types or in cancer cells versus normal differentiated counterparts has remained an intriguing question for decades. At variance with the cAMP-dependent mitogenesis of normal thyroid epithelial cells, we show here that cAMP and cAMP-dependent protein kinase activation inhibit S-phase entry in four thyroid carcinoma cell lines that harbor a permanent activation of the Raf/ERK pathway by different oncogenes. Only in Ret/PTC1-positive TPC-1 cells did cAMP markedly inhibit the Raf/ERK cascade, leading to mTOR pathway inhibition, repression of cyclin D1 and p21 and p27 accumulation. p27 knockdown did not prevent the DNA synthesis inhibition. In the other cells, cAMP little affected these signaling cascades and levels of cyclins D or CDK inhibitors. However, cAMP differentially inhibited the pRb-kinase activity and T172-phosphorylation of CDK4 complexed to cyclin D1 or cyclin D3, whereas CDK-activating kinase activity remained unaffected. At variance with current conceptions, our studies in thyroid carcinoma cell lines and previously in normal thyrocytes identify the activating phosphorylation of CDK4 as a common target of opposite cell cycle regulations by cAMP, irrespective of its impact on classical mitogenic signaling cascades and expression of CDK4 regulatory partners.
Abstract: TSH, mainly acting through cAMP, is the principal physiological regulator of thyroid gland function, differentiation expression, and cell proliferation. Both cAMP-dependent protein kinases [protein kinase A (PKA)] and the guanine-nucleotide-exchange factors for Rap proteins, exchange proteins directly activated by cAMP (Epac) 1 and Epac2, are known to mediate a broad range of effects of cAMP in various cell systems. In the present study, we found a high expression of Epac1 in dog thyrocytes, which was further increased in response to TSH stimulation. Epac1 was localized in the perinuclear region. Epac2 showed little or no expression. The TSH-induced activation of Rap1 was presumably mediated by Epac1 because it was mimicked by the Epac-selective cAMP analog (8-p-chloro-phenyl-thio-2'-O-methyl-cAMP) and not by PKA-selective cAMP analogs. Surprisingly, in view of the high Epac1 expression and its TSH responsiveness, all the cAMP-dependent functions of TSH in cultures or tissue incubations of dog thyroid, including acute stimulation of thyroid hormone secretion, H(2)O(2) generation, actin cytoskeleton reorganization, p70(S6K1) activity, delayed stimulation of differentiation expression, and mitogenesis, were induced only by PKA-selective cAMP analogs. The Epac activator 8-p-chloro-phenyl-thio-2'-O-methyl-cAMP, used alone or combined with PKA-selective cAMP analogs, had no measurable effect on any of these TSH targets. Therefore, PKA activation seems to mediate all the recognized cAMP-dependent effects of TSH and is thus presumably responsible for the pathological consequences of its deregulation. The role of Epac1 and TSH-stimulated Rap1 activation in thyrocytes is still elusive.
Abstract: Constitutive activation of the RAS/RAF/MAPK pathway has been found in different tumor types including papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTCs). To get more insight into genes primarily regulated in the human tumor cells, an in vitro model was developed in which primary cultures of human thyrocytes were treated for different times with epidermal growth factor and serum (EGF/serum), which stimulate the MAPK cascade. Gene expression profiles were obtained by microarrays and compared to the expression profiles of PTCs. An evolution from short-term to long-term EGF/serum-treated cells was found, i.e., a program change showing a distinction between gene expression profiles of short-term and long-term EGF/serum-treated cells. The late pattern of EGF/serum stimulated cells converges to the pattern of PTCs. Comparison of these two types of cells with cAMP activated cells, from thyroid-stimulating hormone-treated thyrocytes and autonomous adenomas, showed distinct gene expression profiles for the two pathways. For the two models, an overlap was found in a number of genes which were early induced in vitro but down-regulated later in vitro and in the in vivo tumors. Thus, long-term stimulated human primary cultures demonstrate a clear relation with the tumor in vivo and could therefore be used as models for the disease.
Abstract: Two distinct mitogenic modes coexist in thyroid epithelial cells. TSH via cAMP induces proliferation and differentiation expression, whereas growth factors including epidermal growth factor (EGF) induce proliferation and dedifferentiation. Divergent models of TSH/cAMP-dependent mitogenesis have emerged from different thyroid cell culture systems. In the FRTL-5 rat cell line, cAMP cross-signals with transduction pathways of growth factors to induce cyclin D1 and p21(cip1) and down-regulate p27(kip1). By contrast, in canine primary cultures, mitogenic pathways of cAMP and growth factors are fully distinct. cAMP does not induce D-type cyclins and p21, it up-regulates p27, and it stimulates the formation and activity of cyclin D3-cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4 complexes. In primary cultures of normal human thyrocytes, EGF + serum increased cyclin D1 and p21 accumulation, and it stimulated the assembly and activity of cyclin D1-CDK4-p21 complexes. By contrast, TSH repressed or did not induce cyclin D1 and p21, and it rather up-regulated p27. TSH did not increase cyclin D1-CDK4 activity, but it stimulated the activating phosphorylation of CDK4 and the pRb-kinase activity of preexisting cyclin D3-CDK4 complexes. As recently demonstrated in dog thyrocytes and other systems, cyclin D1 and cyclin D3 differently oriented the site specificity of CDK4 pRb-kinase activity, which might differently impact some pRb functions. Cyclin D1 or cyclin D3 are thus differentially used in the distinct mitogenic stimulations by growth factors or TSH, and potentially in hyperproliferative diseases generated by the overactivation of their respective signaling pathways. At variance with dog thyroid primary cultures, rat thyroid cell lines might not be valid models of TSH-dependent mitogenesis of human thyrocytes.
Abstract: Cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)4 is a master integrator that couples mitogenic and antimitogenic extracellular signals with the cell cycle. It is also crucial for many oncogenic transformation processes. In this overview, we address various molecular features of CDK4 activation that are critical but remain poorly known or debated, including the regulation of its association with D-type cyclins, its subcellular location, its activating Thr172-phosphorylation and the roles of Cip/Kip CDK "inhibitors" in these processes. We have recently identified the T-loop phosphorylation of CDK4, but not of CDK6, as a determining target for cell cycle control by extracellular factors, indicating that CDK4-activating kinase(s) might have to be reconsidered.
Abstract: Cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) is a master integrator of mitogenic and antimitogenic extracellular signals. It is also crucial for many oncogenic transformation processes. Various molecular features of CDK4 activation remain poorly known or debated, including the regulation of its association with D-type cyclins, its activating Thr172 phosphorylation, and the roles of Cip/Kip CDK "inhibitors" in these processes. Thr172 phosphorylation of CDK4 was reinvestigated using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis in various experimental systems, including human fibroblasts, canine thyroid epithelial cells stimulated by thyrotropin, and transfected mammalian and insect cells. Thr172 phosphorylation of CDK4 depended on prior D-type cyclin binding, but Thr172 phosphorylation was also found in p16-bound CDK4. Opposite effects of p27 on cyclin D3-CDK4 activity observed in different systems depended on its stoichiometry in this complex. Thr172-phosphorylated CDK4 was enriched in complexes containing p21 or p27, even at inhibitory levels of p27 that precluded CDK4 activity. Deletion of the p27 nuclear localization signal sequence relocalized cyclin D3-CDK4 in the cytoplasm but did not affect CDK4 phosphorylation. Within cyclin D3 complexes, T-loop phosphorylation of CDK4, but not of CDK6, was directly regulated, identifying it as a determining target for cell cycle control by extracellular factors. Collectively, these unexpected observations indicate that CDK4-activating kinase(s) should be reconsidered.
Abstract: Two distinct mitogenic modes coexist in the physiologically relevant model of primary cultures of dog thyroid epithelial cells. The differentiation-associated mitogenic stimulation by TSH and cAMP specifically requires the assembly and activation of cyclin D3-cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)4 associated to p27(kip1), while the dedifferentiating proliferation induced by growth factors is associated with induction of cyclin D1. Here, we suggest that the related CDK "inhibitors" p21(cip1) and p27 are differentially utilized as positive CDK4 regulators in these mitogenic stimulations. p21 was induced by EGF + serum, but repressed by TSH, which, as previously shown, upregulates p27. In response to EGF + serum, p21 supported the nuclear localization, phosphorylation and pRb-kinase activity of CDK4. Unexpectedly, partly different site-specificities of pRb-kinase activity, leading to similar differences in the phosphorylation pattern of pRb in intact cells, were associated with cyclin D3-CDK4 bound to p27 in TSH-stimulated cells, or with CDK4 bound to p21 in growth factor-stimulated cells. These differences were ascribed to the predominant association of the latter complex to cyclin D1. Indeed, in different cell types and species, cyclin D1 varied from cyclin D3 by more efficiently driving the phosphorylation of pRb at sites (Ser807/811 and Thr826) required for its electrophoretic mobility shift. Therefore, different D-type cyclins could differently impact some pRb functions, which should be considered not only in the understanding of the relationships between cell cycle and differentiation expression in the distinct mitogenic modes of thyroid cells, but also in various development or differentiation models associated with dramatic switches in the expression of individual D-type cyclins.
Abstract: The mechanisms by which cyclins promote mammalian cell cycle progression have been a topic of intense investigation over the last decade. We previously described an interaction between D-type cyclins and A-kinase anchoring protein, AKAP95. Here, we demonstrate that AKAP95 can also bind cyclin E1. Association between AKAP95 and cyclins is displaced by CDKs. We show that these G(1)/S cyclins can interact with RII subunit of PKAalpha through AKAP95. The presence of alternate complexes cyclin-CDK and cyclin D/E-AKAP95-PKA.RIIalpha suggest different roles of G(1)/S cyclins and a wider biological importance of these interactions in cells.
Abstract: In thyroid epithelial cells, TSH via cAMP induces a rounding up of the cells associated with actin stress fiber disruption, expression of differentiation genes and cell cycle progression. Here we have evaluated the role of small G proteins of the Rho family and their impact on the actin cytoskeleton in these different processes in primary cultures of canine thyrocytes. TSH and forskolin, but not growth factors, rapidly inactivated RhoA, Rac1, and Cdc42, as assayed by detection of GTP-bound forms. Using toxins that inactivate Rho proteins (toxin B, C3 exoenzyme) or activate them [cytotoxic necrotizing factor 1 (CNF1)], in comparison with disruption of the actin cytoskeleton by dihydrocytochalasin B (DCB) or latrunculin, two unexpected conclusions were reached: 1) inactivation of Rho proteins by cAMP, by disorganizing actin microfilaments and inducing cell retraction, could be necessary and sufficient to mediate at least part of the cAMP-dependent induction of thyroglobulin and thyroid oxidases, but only partly necessary for the induction of Na(+)/I(-) symporter and thyroperoxidase; 2) as indicated by the effect of their inhibition by toxin B and C3, some residual activity of Rho proteins could be required for the induction by cAMP-dependent or -independent mitogenic cascades of DNA synthesis and retinoblastoma protein (pRb) phosphorylation, through mechanisms targeting the activity, but not the stimulated assembly, of cyclin D3-cyclin-dependent kinase 4 complexes. However, at variance with current concepts mostly derived from fibroblast models, DNA synthesis induction and cyclin D3-cyclin-dependent kinase 4 activation were resistant to actin depolymerization by dihydrocytochalasin B in canine thyrocytes, which provides a first such example in a normal adherent cell.
Abstract: In thyroid gland, different tumor types are associated with the oncogenic activation of distinct mitogenic cascades, which are normally activated either by TSH via cAMP or by growth factors. In primary cultures of thyroid cells, the cAMP-dependent mitogenic pathway, which is associated with an increased differentiation expression, does not involve most of the intermediates of the classical signalling pathways of growth factors. Especially, we have shown that TSH and cAMP trigger and support cell cycle progression, but they do not upregulate D-type cyclins and they paradoxically increase the accumulation of the CDK inhibitor p27kip1. Instead, cAMP phosphorylates and inactivates pRb by inducing the assembly and nuclear translocation of the cyclin D3-CDK4-p27 holoenzyme, and then by stimulating the activating phosphorylation of CDK4 within this complex.
Abstract: Using a yeast interaction screen to search for proteins that interact with cyclin D3 in thyroid gland, we identified the cAMP-dependent AKAP95 (protein kinase A-anchoring protein 95). AKAP95 is a scaffolding protein that primarily co-fractionates with the nuclear matrix, whereas a minor fraction associates with chromatin in interphase cells. In co-transfected Chinese-hamster ovary cells, AKAP95 strongly interacted with the three D-type cyclins, but not with CDK4 (cyclin-dependent kinase 4) or with p27kip1. CDK4 displaced the interaction between cyclin D3 and AKAP95, suggesting that AKAP95 could not be the elusive bridging adaptor between D-type cyclins and CDK4 or play a role in the regulation of cyclin D3-CDK4 activity. Interaction between endogenous AKAP95 and cyclin D3 or cyclin D1 was detected in canine thyrocytes, human fibroblasts and NIH-3T3 cells. As both AKAP95 and cyclins D were recently reported to associate with minichromosome maintenance proteins [Eide, Tasken, Carlson, Williams, Jahnsen, Tasken and Collas (2003) J. Biol. Chem. 278, 26750-26756; Gladden and Diehl (2003) J. Biol. Chem. 278, 9754-9760], we hypothesize that the interaction between AKAP95 and D-type cyclins might serve to facilitate the emerging regulatory role of cyclin D-CDK4 in the formation of the prereplication complex at the DNA replication origins.
Abstract: The cAMP-dependent mitogenic stimulation elicited by thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in primary cultures of canine thyroid epithelial cells is unique as it upregulates the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor p27kip1 but not D-type cyclins. TSH and cAMP promote the assembly of required cyclin D3-CDK4 complexes and their nuclear import. Here, the nuclear translocation of these complexes strictly correlated in individual cells with the enhanced presence of nuclear p27. p27, like cyclin D3, supported the TSH-stimulated pRb-kinase activity of the CDK4 complex and, as demonstrated using the high-resolution power of the two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis, the phosphorylation of CDK4, presumably by the nuclear CDK-activating kinase. In the presence of TSH, transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta) did not affect the assembly of cyclin D3-CDK4, but it strongly inhibited the pRb-kinase activity associated with both cyclin D3 and p27, not only by preventing the nuclear import of cyclin D3-CDK4 and its binding to p27, but also by inhibiting CDK4 phosphorylation within residual p27-bound cyclin D3-CDK4 complexes. No alterations of the relative abundance of multiple (un)phosphorylated forms of cyclin D3 and p27 demonstrated by 2D-gel electrophoresis were associated with these processes. This study suggests a crucial positive role of p27 in the TSH-stimulated nuclear import, phosphorylation, and catalytic activity of cyclin D3-bound CDK4. Moreover, it demonstrates a technique to directly assess the in vivo phosphorylation of endogenous CDK4, which might appear as a last regulated step targeted by the antagonistic cell cycle effects of TSH and TGFbeta.
Abstract: To control the G1/S transition and the progression through the S phase, the activation of the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 2 involves the binding of cyclin E then cyclin A, the activating Thr-160 phosphorylation within the T-loop by CDK-activating kinase (CAK), inhibitory phosphorylations within the ATP binding region at Tyr-15 and Thr-14, dephosphorylation of these sites by cdc25A, and release from Cip/Kip family (p27kip1 and p21cip1) CDK inhibitors. To re-assess the precise relationship between the different phosphorylations of CDK2, and the influence of cyclins and CDK inhibitors upon them, we introduce here the use of the high resolution power of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, combined to Tyr-15- or Thr-160-phosphospecific antibodies. The relative proportions of the potentially active forms of CDK2 (phosphorylated at Thr-160 but not Tyr-15) and inactive forms (non-phosphorylated, phosphorylated only at Tyr-15, or at both Tyr-15 and Thr-160), and their respective association with cyclin E, cyclin A, p21, and p27, were demonstrated during the mitogenic stimulation of normal human fibroblasts. Novel observations modify the current model of the sequential CDK2 activation process: (i) Tyr-15 phosphorylation induced by serum was not restricted to cyclin-bound CDK2; (ii) Thr-160 phosphorylation engaged the entirety of Tyr-15-phosphorylated CDK2 associated not only with a cyclin but also with p27 and p21, suggesting that Cip/Kip proteins do not prevent CDK2 activity by impairing its phosphorylation by CAK; (iii) the potentially active CDK2 phosphorylated at Thr-160 but not Tyr-15 represented a tiny fraction of total CDK2 and a minor fraction of cyclin A-bound CDK2, underscoring the rate-limiting role of Tyr-15 dephosphorylation by cdc25A.
Abstract: According to current concepts, the cell cycle commitment after restriction (R) point passage requires the sustained stimulation by mitogens of the synthesis of labile d-type cyclins, which associate with cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 to phosphorylate pRb family proteins and sequester the CDK inhibitor p27kip1. In primary cultures of dog thyroid epithelial cells, the cAMP-dependent cell cycle induced by a sustained stimulation by thyrotropin or forskolin differs from growth factor mitogenic pathways, as cAMP does not upregulate d-type cyclins but increases p27 levels. Instead, cAMP induces the assembly of required cyclin D3-CDK4 complexes, which associate with nuclear p27. In this study, the arrest of forskolin stimulation rapidly slowed down the entry of dog thyrocytes into S phase and the phosphorylation of pRb family proteins. The pRb kinase activity, but not the formation, of the cyclin D3-CDK4-p27 complex was strongly reduced. Using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, a phosphorylated form of CDK4 was separated. It appeared in response to forskolin and was bound to both cyclin D3 and p27, presumably reflecting the activating Thr-172 phosphorylation of CDK4. Upon forskolin withdrawal or after cycloheximide addition, this CDK4 phosphoform unexpectedly persisted in p27 complexes devoid of cyclin D3 but it disappeared from the more labile cyclin D3 complexes. These data demonstrate that the assembly of the cyclin D3-CDK4-p27 holoenzyme and the subsequent phosphorylation and activation of CDK4 depend on distinct cAMP actions. This provides a first example of a crucial regulation of CDK4 phosphorylation by a mitogenic cascade and a novel mechanism of cell cycle control at the R point.
Abstract: Cyclic AMP has been shown to inhibit cell proliferation in many cell types and to activate it in some. The latter has been recognized only lately, thanks in large part to studies on the regulation of thyroid cell proliferation in dog thyroid cells. The steps that led to this conclusion are outlined. Thyrotropin activates cyclic accumulation in thyroid cells of all the studied species and also phospholipase C in human cells. It activates directly cell proliferation in rat cell lines, dog, and human thyroid cells but not in bovine or pig cells. The action of cyclic AMP is responsible for the proliferative effect of TSH. It accounts for several human diseases: congenital hyperthyroidism, autonomous adenomas, and Graves' disease; and, by default, for hypothyroidism by TSH receptor defect. Cyclic AMP proliferative action requires the activation of protein kinase A, but this effect is not sufficient to explain it. Cyclic AMP action also requires the permissive effect of IGF-1 or insulin through their receptors, mostly as a consequence of PI3 kinase activation. The mechanism of these effects at the level of cyclin and cyclin-dependent protein kinases involves an induction of cyclin D3 by IGF-1 and the cyclic AMP-elicited generation and activation of the cyclin D3-CDK4 complex.
Abstract: TSH via cAMP, and various growth factors, in cooperation with insulin or IGF-I stimulate cell cycle progression and proliferation in various thyrocyte culture systems, including rat thyroid cell lines (FRTL-5, WRT, PC Cl3) and primary cultures of rat, dog, sheep and human thyroid. The available data on cell signaling cascades, cell cycle kinetics, and cell cycle-regulatory proteins are thoroughly and critically reviewed in these experimental systems. In most FRTL-5 cells, TSH (cAMP) merely acts as a priming/competence factor amplifying PI3K and MAPK pathway activation and DNA synthesis elicited by insulin/IGF-I. In WRT cells, TSH and insulin/IGF-I can independently activate Ras and PI3K pathways and DNA synthesis. In dog thyroid primary cultures, TSH (cAMP) does not activate Ras and PI3K, and cAMP must be continuously elevated by TSH to directly control the progression through G(1) phase. This effect is exerted, at least in part, via the cAMP-dependent activation of the required cyclin D3, itself synthesized in response to insulin/IGF-I. This and other discrepancies show that the mechanistic logics of cell cycle stimulation by cAMP profoundly diverge in these different in vitro models of the same cell. Therefore, although these different thyrocyte systems constitute interesting models of the wide diversity of possible mechanisms of cAMP-dependent proliferation in various cell types, extrapolation of in vitro mechanistic data to TSH-dependent goitrogenesis in man can only be accepted in the cases where independent validation is provided.
Abstract: The stimulation of thyroid cell proliferation by TSH through cAMP depends on permissive comitogenic factors, generally the insulin-like growth factors and insulin. In dog thyroid primary cultures, the use of the phosphodiesterase-resistant analog of cAMP (Bu)(2)cAMP instead of TSH allowed to unveil a potent comitogenic activity of carbamylcholine, which can substitute for insulin and was shown to mimic insulin action on cell cycle regulatory proteins. Like insulin, carbamylcholine induced the accumulation of cyclin D3 and overcame the repression by cAMP of this protein, which was shown 1) to be essential for cell cycle progression by means of microinjections of a neutralizing antibody; and 2) to be rate limiting for the cAMP-dependent assembly of cyclin D3-cdk4 complexes, their nuclear translocation and the phosphorylation of pRb. Relative to insulin, carbamylcholine offers the significant experimental advantage that its signaling cascades can be immediately deactivated by the muscarinic antagonist atropine. In the presence of carbamylcholine, the elimination of (Bu)(2)cAMP blocked within 2 h the entry of cells into DNA synthesis phase, but the addition of atropine still permitted the entry of cells in S phase. These data support our view that the progression in G1 phase stimulated by cAMP consists of at least two essential actions that are clearly dissociated: in a first stage, depending on the supportive activity of an agent that stimulates the required cyclin D3 accumulation, cAMP induces the assembly and nuclear translocation of cyclin D3-cdk4 complexes, and then cAMP can exert alone the last crucial control that determines the cell commitment toward DNA replication.
Abstract: Dog thyroid epithelial cells in primary culture constitute a physiologically relevant model of positive control of DNA synthesis initiation and G0-S prereplicative phase progression by cAMP as a second messenger for thyrotropin (thyroid-stimulating hormone [TSH]). As previously shown in this system, the cAMP-dependent mitogenic pathway differs from growth factor cascades as it stimulates the accumulation of p27(kip1) but not cyclins D. Nevertheless, TSH induces the nuclear translocations and assembly of cyclin D3 and cdk4, which are essential in cAMP-dependent mitogenesis. Here we demonstrate that transforming growth factor beta(1) (TGFbeta(1)) selectively inhibits the cAMP-dependent cell cycle in mid-G1 and various cell cycle regulatory events, but it weakly affects the stimulation of DNA synthesis by epidermal growth factor (EGF), hepatocyte growth factor, serum, and phorbol esters. EGF+serum and TSH did not interfere importantly with TGFbeta receptor signaling, because they did not affect the TGFbeta-induced nuclear translocation of Smad 2 and 3. TGFbeta inhibited the phosphorylation of Rb, p107, and p130 induced by TSH, but it weakly affected the phosphorylation state of Rb-related proteins in EGF+serum-treated cells. TGFbeta did not inhibit c-myc expression. In TSH-stimulated cells, TGFbeta did not affect the expression of cyclin D3, cdk4, and p27(kip1), nor the induced formation of cyclin D3-cdk4 complexes, but it prevented the TSH-induced relocalization of p27(kip1) from cdk2 to cyclin D3-cdk4. It prevented the nuclear translocations of cdk4 and cyclin D3 without altering the assembly of cyclin D3-cdk4 complexes probably formed in the cytoplasm, where they were prevented from sequestering nuclear p27(kip1) away from cdk2. This study dissociates the assembly of cyclin D3-cdk4 complexes from their nuclear localization and association with p27(kip1). It provides a new mechanism of regulation of proliferation by TGFbeta, which points out the subcellular location of cyclin D-cdk4 complexes as a crucial factor integrating mitogenic and antimitogenic regulations in an epithelial cell in primary culture.
Abstract: Ras activation by receptor tyrosine kinases or serpentine receptors is generally considered to be essential for G1 phase progression and mitogenesis. In the physiologically relevant model of primary dog thyrocytes, the accumulation of the GTP-bound form of Ras constituted an early convergence point of various mitogenic or comitogenic stimuli including EGF, HGF, phorbol esters, insulin and carbachol. By contrast, the basal level of GTP-Ras was slightly reduced by TSH and forskolin and did not increase during the TSH/cAMP-dependent progression into G1 phase. This rules out a role for the activation of Ras as a signal in the mitogenesis elicited by TSH via cAMP in these cells.
Abstract: The mitogenic/goitrogenic effects of thyrotropin (TSH) on human thyrocytes in vitro and in vivo depend on permissive comitogenic effects of insulin-like growth factors (IGFs), which are mimicked in vitro by the low-affinity binding of high supraphysiological concentrations of insulin to IGF-I receptors. Contrary to general assumption, we show here that very low concentrations of insulin, acting through insulin receptors but not IGF-I receptors, can also support the stimulation of DNA synthesis by TSH in primary cultures of normal human thyrocytes. Moreover, TSH through cAMP increases the content of insulin receptors demonstrated by Western blotting and the cells' responsiveness to low insulin concentrations. These observations provide the first in vitro evidence in normal human thyroid cells of a functional interaction between TSH and insulin acting through its own receptor.
Abstract: The proliferation of most normal cells depends on the synergistic interaction of several growth factors and hormones, but the cell cycle basis for this combined requirement remains largely uncharacterized. We have addressed the question of the requirement for insulin/IGF-1 also observed in many cell culture systems in the physiologically relevant system of primary cultures of dog thyroid epithelial cells stimulated by TSH, which exerts its mitogenic activity only via cAMP. The induction of cyclin A and cdc2, the phosphorylation of cdk2, the nuclear translocation of cdk4 and the assembly of cyclin D3-cdk4 complexes required the synergy of TSH and insulin. Cyclin D3 (the most abundant cyclin D) was necessary for the proliferation stimulated by TSH in the presence of insulin as shown by microinjection of a neutralizing antibody. Cyclin D3 accumulation and activity were differentially regulated by insulin and TSH, which points out this cyclin as an integrator that ranks these comitogenic pathways as supportive and activatory, respectively. Paradoxically TSH alone strongly repressed cyclin D3 accumulation. This inhibition was overridden by insulin, which markedly stimulated cyclin D3 mRNA and protein accumulation, but failed to assemble cyclin D3-cdk4 complexes in the absence of TSH. TSH unmasked the DCS-22 epitope of cyclin D3 and assembled cyclin D3-cdk4 in the presence of insulin. These data demonstrate that cyclin D synthesis and cyclin D-cdk assembly can be dissociated and complementarily regulated by different agents and signalling pathways.
Abstract: This study addresses the nature of the critical labile event that couples at restriction point mitogenic cascades with the autonomous part of the cell cycle. In primary cultures of dog thyroid epithelial cells, kinetic experiments indicate that a labile cAMP-dependent event positively controls a late G1 commitment to DNA replication and RB phosphorylation. As previously shown in this system, the cAMP-dependent mitogenic pathway differs from the most generally envisaged growth factor cascades as it stimulates the accumulation of p27(kip1) but not of cyclins D. Nevertheless, cyclin D3 and CDK4 activity are essential in the cAMP-dependent mitogenesis, and cAMP unmasks the DCS-22 epitope of cyclin D3 and induces the nuclear translocations and assembly of cyclin D3 and CDK4 in a complex that also contains p27(kip1). Unexpectedly, the washing out of forskolin rapidly arrested S phase entry and the accumulation of hyperphosphorylated RB, but did not reverse any of the above events associated with cyclin D3-CDK4 activation. This implies that even after induction of stable nuclear cyclin D3-CDK4 complexes, dog thyrocytes still depend on cAMP for RB phosphorylation and commitment to DNA synthesis, which suggests that a key labile event responsible for a last control of restriction point passage remains to be uncovered, in the cAMP-dependent cell cycle of dog thyrocytes and possibly other systems.
Abstract: The N-terminal end of thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1) homeodomain is composed of a stretch of five basic amino-acids that is conserved in both POU- and NK2-class homeodomains and constitutes a functional nuclear localization signal. By analyzing the cellular distribution of fusion proteins, composed of a jellyfish green fluorescent variant and different parts of TTF-1, we show here that the presence of this basic sequence is not sufficient by itself to confer complete nuclear accumulation. By mutagenesis, we identified a second region located in the center of the DNA recognition helix of the homeodomain that is also able to specify a predominantly nuclear localization of the chimeric proteins, independently of the presence of the basic NLS. The destruction, by mutagenesis, of both the basic stretch and the motif in the DNA recognition helix led to the total loss of nuclear accumulation, indicating that complete nuclear accumulation of TTF-1 results from the concerted action of these two proteic signals. Both of the regions of the homeodomain that are involved in nuclear targeting also encompass critical amino-acids responsible for DNA binding site recognition, as evidenced by the loss of DNA binding activity in vitro upon mutagenesis. Specifically, residues in the central part of the DNA recognition helix are involved in contacting bases in the major groove of DNA and are the most conserved in homeodomain proteins, suggesting that this part of the homeodomain could play a general role in the nuclear localization of members of this family of proteins.
Abstract: The regular doubling of cell mass, and therefore of cell protein content, is required for repetitive cell divisions. Preliminary observations have shown that in dog thyrocytes insulin induces protein accumulation but not DNA synthesis, while TSH does not increase protein accumulation but triggers DNA synthesis in the presence of insulin. We show here that EGF and phorbol myristate ester complement insulin action in the same way. HGF is the only factor activating both protein accumulation and DNA synthesis. The effects of insulin on protein accumulation and in permitting the TSH effect are reproduced by IGF-1 and are mediated, at least in part by the IGF-1 receptor. The concentration effect curves are similar for both effects. Similar results are obtained in human thyrocytes. They reflect true cell growth, as shown by increases in RNA content and cell size. Carbachol and fetal calf serum also stimulate protein synthesis and accumulation without triggering DNA synthesis, but they are not permissive for the mitogenic effects of TSH or of the general adenylate cyclase activator, forskolin. Moreover the mitogenic effect of TSH greatly decreased in cells deprived of insulin for 2 days although these cells remain hypertrophic. Hypertrophy may therefore be necessary for cell division, but it is not sufficient to permit it. Three different mechanisms can therefore be distinguished in the mitogenic action of TSH: (1) the increase of cell mass (hypertrophy) induced by insulin or IGF-1; (2) the permissive effect of insulin or IGF-1 on the mitogenic effect of TSH which may involve both the increase of cell mass and the induction of specific proteins such as cyclin D3 and (3) the mitogenic effect of the TSH cyclic AMP cascade proper.
Abstract: In different systems, cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) either blocks or promotes cell cycle progression in mid to late G1 phase. Dog thyroid epithelial cells in primary culture constitute a model of positive control of DNA synthesis initiation and G0-S prereplicative phase progression by cAMP as a second messenger for thyrotropin (TSH). The cAMP-dependent mitogenic pathway is unique as it is independent of mitogen-activated protein kinase activation and differs from growth factor-dependent pathways at the level of the expression of several protooncogenes/transcription factors. This study examined the involvement of D-type G1 cyclins and their associated cyclin-dependent kinase (cdk4) in the cAMP-dependent G1 phase progression of dog thyroid cells. Unlike epidermal growth factor (EGF)+serum and other cAMP-independent mitogens, TSH did not induce the accumulation of cyclins D1 and D2 and partially inhibited the basal expression of the most abundant cyclin D3. However, TSH stimulation enhanced the nuclear detection of cyclin D3. This effect correlated with G1 and S phase progression. It was found to reflect both the unmasking of an epitope of cyclin D3 close to its domain of interaction with cdk4, and the nuclear translocation of cyclin D3. TSH and EGF+serum also induced a previously undescribed nuclear translocation of cdk4, the assembly of precipitable cyclin D3-cdk4 complexes, and the Rb kinase activity of these complexes. Previously, cdk4 activity was found to be required in the cAMP-dependent mitogenic pathway of dog thyrocytes, as in growth factor pathways. Here, microinjections of a cyclin D3 antibody showed that cyclin D3 is essential in the TSH/ cAMP-dependent mitogenesis, but not in the pathway of growth factors that induce cyclins D1 and D2. The present study (a) provides the first example in a normal cell of a stimulation of G1 phase progression occurring independently of an enhanced accumulation of cyclins D, (b) identifies the activation of cyclin D3 and cdk4 through their enhanced assembly and/or nuclear translocation, as first convergence steps of the parallel cAMP-dependent and growth factor mitogenic pathways, and (c) strongly suggests that this new mechanism is essential in the cAMP-dependent mitogenesis, which provides the first direct demonstration of the requirement for cyclin D3 in a G1 phase progression.
Abstract: Thyrotropin (TSH), via a cyclic AMP (cAMP)-dependent pathway, induces cytoplasmic retractions, proliferation, and differentiation expression in dog thyroid cells. The role of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) in the induction of these events was assessed by microinjection into living cells. Microinjection of the heat-stable inhibitor of PKA (PKI) inhibited the effects of TSH, demonstrating that activation of PKA was required in this process. Overexpression of the catalytic (C) subunit of PKA brought about by microinjection of the expression plasmid pC alpha ev or of purified C subunit itself was sufficient to mimic the cAMP-dependent cytoplasmic changes and thyroperoxidase mRNA expression but not to induce DNA synthesis and thyroglobulin (Tg) expression. The cAMP-dependent morphological effect was not observed when C subunit was coinjected with the regulatory subunit (RI or RII subunit) of PKA. To mimic the cAMP-induced PKA dissociation into free C and R subunits, the C subunit was coinjected with the regulation-deficient truncated RI subunit (RIdelta1-95) or with wild-type RI or native RII subunits, followed by incubation with TSH at a concentration too low to stimulate the cAMP-dependent events by itself. Although the cAMP-dependent morphology changes were still observed, neither DNA synthesis nor Tg expression was stimulated in these cells. Taken together, these data suggest that in addition to PKA activation, another cAMP-dependent mechanism could exist and play an important role in the transduction of the cAMP signal in thyroid cells.
Abstract: Despite the similarity of their receptors and signal transduction pathways, insulin is regarded as a regulator of glucose, protein, and lipid metabolism, whereas insulin-like growth factors (IGF-I and IGF-II) mainly act as mitogenic hormones. In the dog thyroid primary culture model, the triggering of DNA synthesis by thyrotropin (TSH) through cAMP, or by cAMP-independent factors including epidermal growth factor, hepatocyte growth factor and phorbol esters, requires insulin or IGFs as comitogenic factors. In the present study, in TSH-treated cells, IGF-I receptors and insulin receptors were paradoxically equivalent in their capacity to elicit the comitogenic pathway, which, however, was mediated only by IGF-I receptors in dog thyroid cells stimulated by cAMP-independent mitogens. Moreover, prior cell exposure to TSH or forskolin increased their responsiveness to insulin, IGF-I, and IGF-II, as seen on DNA synthesis and activation of a common insulin/IGF signaling pathway. To understand these observations, binding characteristics and expression of insulin and IGF-I receptors were examined. To analyze IGF-I receptor characteristics, the unexpected interference of a huge presence of IGF-binding proteins at the cell membrane was avoided using labeled Long R3 IGF-I instead of IGF-I. Strikingly, TSH, through cAMP, time-dependently induced insulin binding and insulin receptor mRNA and protein accumulation without any effect on IGF-I receptors. These findings constitute a first example of an induction of insulin receptor gene expression by a cAMP-mediated hormone. In dog thyroid cells, this allows low physiological insulin concentrations to act as a comitogenic factor and might explain in part the enhanced responsiveness to IGFs in response to TSH. This raises the possibility that TSH-insulin interactions may play a role in the regulation of thyroid growth and function in vivo.
Abstract: Dog thyroid epithelial cells in primary culture constitute a model of positive control of DNA synthesis initiation and G0-S prereplicative phase progression by cyclic AMP as a second messenger for TSH. In tis early steps, this mitogenic control is quite distinct from cyclic AMP-independent mitogenic cascades elicited by growth factors. We demonstrate here that TSH (cyclic AMP) and EGF+serum (cyclic AMP-independent) stimulations cooperate and finally converge on proteins that control the cell cycle machinery. This convergence included a common induction of the expression of cyclin A and p34cdc2, and to a lesser extent of p33/38cdk2, which was already expressed in quiescent thyroid cells, and common changes of cdc2 and CDK2 phosphorylations as evidenced by electrophoretic mobility shifts. Kinetic differences in these processes after stimulation by TSH or EGF+serum or by these factors in combination correlated with differences in cell cycle kinetics. Moreover, an immunofluorescence analysis of these proteins using the double labeling of PCNA as a marker of each cell cycle phase shows: (1) a previously undescribed nuclear translocation of CDK2 before S phase initiation; (2) a sudden increase of cdc2 nuclear immunoreactivity at G2/mitosis transition. These data support the roles of CDK2 and cdc2 at G1/S and G2/mitosis transitions, respectively. (3) We were unable to demonstrate in individual cells a strict association between the nuclear appearance of cyclin A and G1/S transition, and an association of cyclin A and CDK2 with PCNA-stained DNA replication sites. On the other hand, the lengthening of G2 phase in the TSH/cyclic AMP-dependent thyroid cell cycle was associated with a stabilization of Tyr15 inhibitory phosphorylation of cdc2 and an especially high nuclear concentration of cyclin A and CDK2. We hypothesize that high nuclear accumulation of cyclin A and CDK2 during G2 phase could be causative in the cyclic AMP-dependent delay of mitosis onset.
Abstract: In different systems, cAMP either blocks or promotes cell cycle progression in mid to late G1 phase. Dog thyroid epithelial cells in primary culture constitute a model of positive control of DNA synthesis initiation and G0-S pre-replicative phase progression by cyclic AMP (cAMP) as a second messenger for thyrotropin (TSH). We report here that TSH markedly increases the expression of p27kip1, the inhibitor of the cell cycle and cyclin-dependent kinases. This effect was prevented by the concomitant administration of the cAMP-independent mitogens, epidermal growth factor (EGF)+serum. EGF+serum also slightly inhibited the weak basal accumulation of p27kip1. Nevertheless, in the case of stimulation by TSH alone, the cAMP-dependent cell cycle progression was fully compatible with the enhanced expression of p27kip1. This observation is paradoxical since a decrease of p27kip1 is generally associated with growth stimulation in other systems, and since a similar cAMP-dependent increase of p27kip1 in macrophages has been found responsible for mid-G1 cell cycle arrest. The opposite regulation of p27kip1 in response to TSH or EGF+serum in dog thyroid epithelial cells suggests a major difference at mid to late G1 stages between cAMP-dependent and cAMP-independent mitogenic pathways.
Abstract: When quiescent dog thyroid epithelial cells in primary culture are stimulated for 48 h with thyrotropin (TSH), forskolin acting through cAMP, or with cAMP-independent mitogens including epidermal growth factor (EGF), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and a tumor promoting phorbol ester (TPA), only 30-60% of cells progress through the cell cycle. A more general growth response requires the combination of EGF and TSH or forskolin. In this study we ask whether this intercellular heterogeneity in mitogen sensitivity could depend on a similar heterogeneity at early stages of the mitogenic stimulation process, i.e., at the levels of p42/p44 MAP kinase nuclear translocation and c-Fos protein appearance. We used indirect immunofluorescence microscopy with photometric quantitation and corroborated data using Western blotting. We analyzed the double staining of c-Fos and p42/p44 MAP kinases, since the nuclear translocation of these MAP kinases has been suggested as a key step for the stimulation of c-fos transcription. (i) EGF and HGF induced c-Fos accumulation and MAP kinase translocation in variable fractions of the cell population that corresponded to their relative potency as mitogens. c-Fos appearance and MAP kinase translocation poorly correlated in individual cells. Many cells accumulated c-Fos without any detectable p42/p44 MAP kinase translocation. The heterogeneity of proliferative responses to EGF could be due to the lack of c-Fos or MAP kinase responsiveness of many cells. (ii) TPA induced c-Fos accumulation and MAP kinase translocation within the whole cell population, which did not explain the heterogeneity of the growth response to this factor and showed that these events are not sufficient to elicit DNA synthesis, (iii) TSH and forskolin induced a weak c-Fos accumulation in only a minority of cells but, as previously shown, no p42/p44 MAP kinase phosphorylation and translocation. An important c-Fos expression was thus dispensable for the strong DNA synthesis stimulation exerted by cAMP-dependent mitogens. (iv) Forskolin potentiated the EGF effect on c-Fos expression but not on p42/p44 MAP kinase phosphorylation and translocation. This reflected the fact that EGF induced c-Fos accumulation in 90% of cells in the presence of forskolin but in 30-50% of cells in its absence. This kind of potentiation, which specifically implies an increase in the fraction of responding cells, is termed "generalization" in the present study.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Abstract: Using separation of total cellular proteins by two dimensional (2-D) gel electrophoresis (isoelectric focusing/SDS-PAGE) we have characterized two regulated proteins, p21 and p19, in dog thyroid cells. We have used the same 2-D gel technique to purify these proteins before their trypsin cleavage and partial sequencing. Three peptides were sequenced in the case of p19 and two peptides in the case of p21. The Swiss-Prot protein sequence database revealed that p19 was identical to destrin/ADF (actin depolymerizing factor) and p21 to cofilin, two closely related and widely distributed actin-binding proteins. This was further verified by cross-reactivity with specific antibodies against brain cofilin and chicken ADF. We have demonstrated, using 2-D gel electrophoresis with a nonequilibrium pH gradient in the first dimension (nonequilibrium pH gradient in the first dimension (nonequilibrium pH gradient electrophoresis/SDS-PAGE) that, in the thyroid cell, cofilin and destrin/ADF were present, under control conditions, in two forms: a phosphorylated and an unphosphorylated one. Thyrotropin (TSH), through cyclic AMP, provoked a very rapid dephosphorylation of these two proteins, which was already maximal after 20 min of action, whereas their dephosphorylation in response to 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) was slower. This suggests that dephosphorylation of cofilin and destrin/ADF by TSH could be implicated in the disruption of actin-containing stress fibers and in the reorganization of microfilaments induced by this hormone. Epidermal growth factor, which does not induce acute morphological changes in thyroid cells, did not affect the state of phosphorylation of cofilin and destrin/ADF except for a delayed decrease (after 24 h) of destrin/ADF phosphorylation. A 10% dimethyl sulfoxide treatment of thyroid cells also induced rapid dephosphorylation of destrin and cofilin. This was accompanied by a reorganization of actin microfilaments that clearly resembles the one induced by TSH and by the appearance of intranuclear cofilin-containing rods. However, these rod structures were not observed in response to TSH, forskolin, or TPA, suggesting that dephosphorylation of cofilin correlates with the reorganization of actin microfilaments but not with the nuclear transport of cofilin. We propose that the dephosphorylation of destrin and cofilin could be involved in the TSH-stimulated macropinocytic activity, a key process in thyroid hormone secretion.
Abstract: In dog thyroid epithelial cells (thyrocytes) in primary culture, thyrotropin (TSH) acting through cAMP induces proliferation and differentiation expression, whereas epidermal growth factor (EGF) and tumor-promoting phorbol esters induce proliferation and dedifferentiation. In these cells we have demonstrated mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase phosphorylation by 32P labeling and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and by immunodetection with anti-MAP kinase and anti-phosphotyrosine antibodies after one- or two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. MAP kinase localization was demonstrated by immunochemical staining. We show the following results. (i) As in other systems, EGF and phorbol esters induced p42 and p44 MAP kinases phosphorylation on tyrosine, serine, and threonine. This effect was rapid, peaking after 5 and 15 min, respectively, followed by a slow decline thereafter. It preceded a translocation of MAP kinase immunoreactivity from cytoplasm to nucleus. (ii) Carbamylcholine, a potent stimulator of the Ca(2+)-phosphatidylinositol cascade which is unable to induce DNA synthesis, stimulated MAP kinases phosphorylation and nuclear staining with kinetics similar to those observed after EGF action, indicating that MAP kinase phosphorylation was not sufficient for mitogenesis. (iii) The cAMP-dependent mitogenic cascade elicited by TSH and forskolin did not involve the phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of p42 and p44 MAP kinases at any time during the entire prereplicative phase. Activation of MAP kinases by phosphorylation is therefore not a necessary step in the G0-G1 transition in this mitogenic cascade.
Abstract: Transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF beta 1) mRNA has previously been identified in human thyroid cells and this agent has been shown to inhibit DNA synthesis in thyroid cells of some other species. In normal human thyroid cells in primary culture, TGF beta 1 inhibited inconstantly the low basal DNA synthesis and strongly the stimulation of DNA synthesis by epidermal growth factor (EGF) and serum, and by thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) acting through cAMP. This inhibition, by TGF beta 1, of the TSH and cAMP-dependent DNA synthesis was associated with an inhibition of PCNA (proliferating cell nuclear antigen) synthesis. TGF beta 1 almost completely abolished the cAMP induced stimulation of iodide uptake and thyroperoxidase synthesis. It thus, like EGF, also acts as a dedifferentiating agent. Investigation of the pattern of protein synthesis by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis revealed that while TGF beta 1, by itself, increased the synthesis of only one protein, a tropomyosin isoform, it inhibited most of the effects of cAMP on protein synthesis (35 out of 45 cAMP-regulated proteins were affected). It also reversed the effect of cAMP on the morphology of the thyrocytes. The fact that TGF beta 1 did not affect the increase in cAMP provoked by TSH in human thyroid cells while inhibiting most of the effects of dibutyryl cAMP in these cells suggests an action at a step distal to cAMP generation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Abstract: In this study, experimental conditions are described that allowed us to follow the fate of the DNA polymerase delta-associated proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), by immunolabeling during the overall cell cycle. Differences in subcellular localization or the presence of PCNA allowed us to identify each phase of the cell cycle. Using these cell cycle markers in dog thyroid epithelial cells in primary culture, we found unexpected differences in cell cycle kinetics, in response to stimulations through cAMP-dependent and cAMP-independent pathways. These provide a new dimension to the view that the two pathways are largely separate, but co-operate on DNA synthesis initiation. More precisely, thyrotropin (TSH), acting via cAMP, exerts a potent triggering effect on DNA synthesis, associated with a precocious induction of PCNA appearance. This constitutes the major influence of TSH (cAMP) in determining cell cycle progression, which is only partly moderated by TSH-dependent lengthening of S- and G2-phases.
Abstract: Using in situ hybridization procedure, we have investigated the regulation and the cellular localization of thyroperoxidase (TPO) messenger RNA accumulation as a marker of differentiation in dog thyroid epithelial cells in primary culture. The response to different mitogens (TSH acting through cAMP, EGF and TPA) has been compared. TPO mRNA accumulation was exquisitely dependent on a continuous TSH/cAMP stimulation. It was induced within 1 h in the whole cell population from a very low basal level. This effect was inhibited by the cAMP-independent mitogens EGF and TPA. By contrast, the TSH-induction of TPO mRNA accumulation was observed irrespectively of the proliferative activity of the cells, i.e. in the presence or the absence of insulin, which is required for mitogenesis. The short half-life of TPO mRNA (+/- 2 h) implies that it was continuously transcribed during TSH/cAMP-dependent cell cycling. As compared to another thyroid differentiation marker, thyroglobulin mRNA (Pohl et al., J. Cell Biol. 111, 663-672 (1990)), TPO mRNA accumulation differed by the rapidity of its control by cAMP, the pattern of its intercellular heterogeneity, and the unexpected segregation to a perinuclear region, probably the nuclear envelope that constitutes a specialized part of the endoplasmic reticulum. Despite these differences, both TPO and thyroglobulin gene transcriptions are unequivocally compatible with the cell cycle when induced by cAMP, at variance with the generally observed antagonism between growth and differentiation expression.
Abstract: The effects of adenine nucleotides and adenosine on DNA synthesis and cell growth have been studied in bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs). ATP produced a small but significant (+44%) increase of the fraction of BAECs whose nuclei are labeled by [3H]thymidine. This mitogenic effect was mimicked by ADP, the phosphorothioate analogues ATP gamma S and ADP beta S, and the nonhydrolyzable analogue adenosine 5'-(beta, gamma-imido)triphosphate (APPNP), whereas adenosine 5'-(alpha, beta-methylene)triphosphate (APCPP), a selective agonist of P2x-purinoceptors, had no effect at 10 microM and a small one at 100 microM; this profile is consistent with the involvement of P2y-receptors. Adenosine induced a mitogenic response of a magnitude similar to that of ATP. This effect was not reproduced by R-phenylisopropyl adenosine, by 5'-N-ethylcarboxamide adenosine, or by 2',5'-dideoxyadenosine, selective ligands of the A1- and A2-receptors and the P site, respectively, nor was it inhibited by 8-phenyltheophylline, an antagonist of both A1- and A2-receptors. The mechanism of this adenosine action thus remains unclear. ATP and ATP gamma S did not enhance the proliferation of BAECs cultured in the presence of fetal calf serum concentrations ranging from 0.5% to 10%. They inhibited the growth-promoting effect of basic fibroblast growth factor; among the various nucleotides tested, APCPP was the least effective to reproduce the action of ATP, suggesting the possible involvement of P2y-receptors.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Abstract: Changes in the [Ca2+]i and/or activation of phospholipase C are thought to participate in the control by several growth factors of the mammalian cell proliferation. It has even been claimed that activation of the Ca(2+)-phosphatidylinositol cascade is sufficient to elicit cell proliferation [Jackson et al. (1988) Nature 335, 437-440; Julius et al. (1989) Science 244, 1057-1062]. In this work, we have evaluated the control of DNA synthesis by this cascade in a differentiated epithelial cell model: the dog thyrocyte in primary culture. We first observed that potent activators of the dog thyrocyte (2+)-phosphatidylinositol cascade such as carbachol or bradykinin failed to promote the onset of DNA synthesis in these cells. Moreover, carbachol inhibited the mitogenic effect of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and of epidermal growth factor (EGF). The mitogenic effect of EGF was also reduced by bradykinin. Nevertheless, carbachol enhanced the expression of the protooncogenes c-fos and c-myc mRNAs. The time course of this enhancement was identical to the time course for the induction of c-fos and c-myc mRNAs by phorbol esters or EGF. On the other hand, in most experiments, TSH and EGF were able to trigger the onset of dog thyrocyte DNA synthesis without affecting their intracellular free Ca2+ concentration [Ca2+]i, 45Ca2+ efflux, or inositol phosphate generation. In several experiments, TSH increased the dog thyrocyte 45Ca2+ release and promoted a rise in the [Ca2+]i or the inositol phosphate accumulation but these effects were weak. In contrast to the effect of carbachol, the TSH effects on the [Ca2+]i and the 45Ca2+ efflux appeared slowly, were sustained, and were extremely sensitive to extracellular Ca2+ depletion. They were observed at hormone concentrations higher than the concentration achieving maximal stimulation of DNA synthesis. Similarly, in a few experiments, a slight increase in the [Ca2+]i or in the inositol trisphosphate generation were provoked by EGF. However, these modifications were not associated with an increased mitogenic potency of EGF. Finally, in all experiments, fetal calf serum slightly accelerated the dog thyrocyte 45Ca2+ efflux and increased their inositol phosphate generation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Abstract: The mechanisms that generate the intercellular heterogeneity of functional and proliferation responses in a tissue are generally unknown. In the thyroid gland, this heterogeneity is peculiarly marked and it has been proposed that it could result from the coexistence of genetically different subpopulations of thyrocytes. To evaluate the heterogeneity of proliferative responses in primary culture of dog thyrocytes, we asked whether the progeny of cells having incorporated 3H thymidine in a first period of the culture could have a distinct proliferative fate during a second labeling period (incorporation of bromodeoxyuridine revealed by immunofluorescence staining combined with autoradiography of 3H thymidine). No growth-prone subpopulations were detected and the great majority of cells were found to response to either EGF or thyrotropin (TSH) through cAMP. However, only a fraction of cells replicated DNA at one given period and a clustered distribution of labeled cells within the monolayer, which was different for thymidine- or bromodeoxyuridine-labeled cells, indicates some local and temporal synchrony of neighboring cells. The TSH/cAMP-dependent division of thyrocytes preserved their responsiveness to both TSH and EGF mitogenic pathways. By contrast, cells that had divided during a momentary treatment with EGF lost the mitogenic sensitivity to TSH and cAMP (forskolin) but retained the sensitivity to EGF. Since cells that had not divided kept responsiveness to both TSH and EGF, this generated two subpopulations differing in mitogen responsiveness. The extinction of the TSH/cAMP-dependent mitogenic pathway was delayed (1-2 d) but stable. Cell fusion experiments suggest it was due to the induction of a diffusible intracellular inhibitor of the cAMP-dependent growth pathway. These findings provide a useful model of the generation of a qualitative heterogeneity in the cell sensitivity to various mitogens, which presents analogies with other epigenetic processes, such as differentiation and senescence. They shed a new light on the significance of the coexistence of different modes of cell cycle controls in thyroid epithelial cells.
Abstract: In dog thyrocyte primary cultures, the antagonistic effects of thyrotropin (TSH) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) on differentiation expression were accompagnied by distinct long-term morphological changes: TSH-treated cells showed an epitheloid morphology; EGF reversibly induced a fusiform shape. Using indirect immunofluorescence microscopy and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, we studied the modifications in the distribution and synthesis of the intermediate filament proteins of the cytoskeleton in response to TSH and EGF. These factors had little effect on the expression of cytokeratins 8 and 18, which were expressed in 98% of cells. However, TSH induced a profound redistribution of cytokeratins (and actin) with the appearance of a marked staining of cell junctions. Vimentin was coexpressed with cytokeratins in about 40% of cells from normal thyroid follicles freshly isolated by collagenase. During culture, immunostained vimentin network progressively developed in 90% of control and EGF-treated cells simultaneously with vimentin synthesis. In contrast, only 20% of TSH-treated cells reacted with vimentin antibody and we observed a marked decrease in vimentin synthesis in response to TSH. Therefore, vimentin synthesis, which should occur in at least some normal thyroid follicles in vivo, was inhibited in vitro by TSH which promotes differentiation expression. However, EGF-treated cells thereafter cultured with TSH regained an epitheloid morphology and differentiation in spite of the persistency of a complete network of vimentin.
Abstract: Three cascades activate thyroid cell proliferation: the EGF-protein tyrosine kinase pathway, the phorbol ester-protein kinase C pathway and the thyrotropin-cyclic AMP pathway. While the first 2 cascades converge early, they remain distinct from the cyclic AMP cascade until very late in G1. The cyclic AMP cascade is characterized by an early and transient expression of c-myc, which may explain why it induces proliferation and differentiation expression. Constitutive activation of this cascade causes growth and hyperfunction, ie, hyperfunctioning adenomas. The various possible defects that could lead to such a constitutive activation are discussed.
Abstract: In dog thyroid cell primary cultures the prolonged presence (up to 4-6 days) of TSH induced down regulation of the isoenzyme I (PKA I) of cAMP-dependent protein kinases. In the simultaneous presence of TSH and EGF this down regulation of PKA I was maintained, although it was slightly smaller than in assays without EGF. In contrast, the simultaneous presence of TPA, totally inhibited the TSH induced down regulation of PKA I. These results partly explain the previously observed additivity of TSH and EGF, and the non-additivity of TSH and TPA actions on cell proliferation in these cells.
Abstract: The mechanisms that generate the intercellular heterogeneity of functional and proliferation responses in a tissue are generally unknown. In thyroid gland, this heterogeneity is peculiarly marked and it was suggested that it could result from the coexistence of (epi)genetically different subpopulations of thyrocytes. As summarized in this short review, qualitative or quantitative intercellular heterogeneities have been found at each levels of our "in situ" investigations of morphological, differentiation and proliferative responses of unselected dog thyrocytes in primary culture. These different heterogeneities are unrelated at the individual cell level, which does not indicate the coexistence in thyroid of cell subpopulations stably expressing special properties. Nevertheless, using a double labeling methodology that allows to trace the proliferative behavior of some cells, we show how cell division may stably affect further proliferation responses and how a local synchrony of the dividing cells can result in a stable heterogeneity with a regional, patchy pattern, which resembles the one characterizing multinodular goiter.
Abstract: The effect of thyrotropin (TSH) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) on the synthesis of proteins has been studied using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis in primary cultures of thyroid cells developing as a monolayer or that remained associated as dense aggregates. (1) A 4-day treatment of monolayer cells by TSH or dibutyryl cAMP enhanced the synthesis of 26 proteins and decreased that of 19 others. (2) The synthesis of 29 proteins was similarly modified by TSH and dibutyryl cAMP in both types of culture organizations. Both agents stimulated the synthesis of thyroperoxidase and of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)/cyclin and decreased that of actin and of a high Mr isoform of tropomyosin. (3) TSH induced the retraction of monolayer cells. Its effect on the synthesis of many proteins was mimicked by culturing unstimulated cells as dense aggregates instead of monolayers which similarly affected cell morphology. (4) EGF alone had no effect on protein synthesis in monolayer cells but it inhibited both the morphological changes induced by TSH and dibutyryl cAMP and the effect of these agents on the synthesis of 23 proteins including thyroperoxidase. In conclusion: (1) TSH and cAMP induce both proliferation and the expression of differentiation in thyroid cells while EGF has a small mitogenic effect but a marked inhibitory action on differentiation expression; (2) many TSH (cAMP) and EGF effects on the pattern of protein synthesis might be related to morphological changes; (3) the expression of the differentiation marker thyroperoxidase and of the mitogenic marker PCNA/cyclin appears independent of cell configuration and morphology.
Abstract: In canine thyrocytes in primary culture, our previous studies have identified three mitogenic agents and pathways: thyrotropin (TSH) acting through cyclic AMP (cAMP), EGF and its receptor tyrosine protein kinase, and the phorbol esters that stimulate protein kinase C. TSH enhances, while EGF and phorbol esters inhibit, the expression of differentiation. Given that growth and differentiation expression are often considered as mutually exclusive activities of the cells, it was conceivable that the differentiating action of TSH was restricted to noncycling (Go) cells, while the inhibition of the differentiation expression by EGF and phorbol esters only concerned proliferating cells. Therefore, the capacity to express the thyroglobulin (Tg) gene, the most prominent marker of differentiation in thyrocytes, was studied in proliferative cells (with insulin) and in quiescent cells (without insulin). Using cRNA in situ hybridization, we observed that TSH (and, to a lesser extent, insulin and insulin-like growth factor I) restored or maintained the expression of the Tg gene. Without these hormones, the Tg mRNA content became undetectable in most of the cells. EGF and 12-0-tetradecanoyl phorbol-13-acetate (TPA) inhibited the Tg mRNA accumulation induced by TSH (and/or insulin). Most of the cells (up to 90%) responded to both TSH and EGF. Nevertheless, the range of individual response was quite variable. The effects of TSH and EGF on differentiation expression were not dependent on insulin and can therefore be dissociated from their mitogenic effects. Cell cycling did not affect the induction of Tg gene. Indeed, the same cell distribution of Tg mRNA content was observed in quiescent cells stimulated by TSH alone, or in cells approximately 50% of which had performed one mitotic cycle in response to TSH + insulin. Moreover, after proliferation in "dedifferentiating" conditions (EGF + serum + insulin), thyrocytes had acquired a fusiform fibroblast-like morphology, and responded to TSH by regaining a characteristic epithelial shape and high Tg mRNA content. 32 h after the replacement of EGF by TSH, cells in mitosis presented the same distribution of the Tg mRNA content as the rest of the cell population. This implies that cell cycling (at least 27 h, as previously shown) did not affect the induction of the Tg gene which is clearly detectable after a time lag of at least 24 h. The data unequivocally show that the reexpression of differentiation and proliferative activity are separate but fully compatible processes when induced by cAMP in thyrocytes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Abstract: The synthesis of specific protein has been investigated in primary cultures of dog thyroid epithelial cells, which can be induced to progress into G1 phase, in the presence of insulin, by different types of mitogens: thyrotropin (TSH) acting through cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), epidermal growth factor (EGF), 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA), or 10% serum. EGF, TPA, or serum specifically induce [35S] methionine labeling of protein 1 (Mr approximately 80,000). The effect of EGF on protein 1 labeling and DNA replication is dependent on insulin. The level of protein 1 labeling as well as that of DNA synthesis is higher when TSH or TSH + serum are added together with EGF. It peaks in mid-G1. TSH alone, in the presence of insulin, stimulates DNA replication without inducing protein 1 synthesis, which thus represents a cell-cycle-dependent event that is not obligatory in mitogenic activation through cyclic AMP. Among the eight proteins whose synthesis is stimulated by TSH, only the labeling of protein 7, molecular weight ratio (Mr approximately 38,000), correlates with the DNA synthetic activity of the cells. The present authors identified protein 7 as cyclin/proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), the auxiliary protein of DNA polymerase-delta. The effect of TSH on cyclin synthesis is already detectable when most of the cells are in late G1, but its stimulation by EGF or EGF + serum is delayed and detected only after extending the labeling period to the S-phase. These data support the view that the cAMP-mediated mitogenic pathway remains partly distinct from the better known pathways induced by growth factors and tumor promoters, even at late stages of the G1-phase.
Abstract: The activity of the two cAMP-dependent protein kinases (PKa I and PKa II) was evaluated in dog thyroid cells in primary cultures after a 6-day growth period induced by either thyrotropin (TSH) or epidermal growth factor (EGF). Although the total PKa activity was not affected in cells cultured in the presence of TSH or EGF, their actions on the PKa I and PKa II expressions were significantly different. The activity of PKa I was strongly inhibited by TSH (70-80%) while with EGF it was either stimulated or unaffected with respect to controls. The two mitogens did not have a significant effect on the activity of PKa II. Forskolin (Fk) mimicked the effect of TSH. The expression of the two regulatory subunits (R I and R II), evaluated by the covalent binding of 8-azido-cAMP, was similar to the expression of the corresponding catalytic activities, suggesting a coregulation of the catalytic and regulatory subunits from the same isozyme. After chronic stimulation by TSH, differentiated dog thyroid cells are almost completely deprived of PKa I.
Abstract: A system of calf thyroid follicular cells in primary cultures has been developed to investigate the control of thyroglobulin gene expression in normal cells in vitro. In low (0.1%) serum conditions, the cells remained quiescent and formed dense aggregates surrounded by slowly spreading cells. High expression of thyroid-specific differentiation markers such as thyroglobulin (Tg) mRNA accumulation and iodide transport required the continuous exposure of cells to thyrotropin (TSH) or other adenylate cyclase activators (cholera toxin and forskolin). In the absence of TSH, Tg mRNA decreased to low but still detectable levels. Addition of TSH, forskolin or cholera toxin restored high Tg gene expression. Hydrocortisone moderately stimulated basal Tg mRNA accumulation and strongly potentiated the effect of TSH. Growth promoters including serum (1-10%), epidermal growth factor (EGF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA) induced calf thyroid cells to develop as a monolayer and inhibited both basal and TSH-stimulated expression of specialized functions. Moreover, only a partial restoration of this expression was achieved after addition of TSH or forskolin to well spread-out cells that had proliferated in response to EGF or serum. The results show that in calf thyroid cells, iodide transport and Tg gene expression are regulated by TSH through cyclic AMP; hydrocortisone potentiates this effect on Tg gene expression, while all growth promoting factors inhibit the expression of these differentiated functions.
Abstract: The role of the two different isozymes of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase is still unclear. We have investigated the potential roles for each isozyme in dog thyroid cells, a model in which the function, expression of differentiation and proliferation are positively regulated by thyrotropin acting through cyclic AMP. The dog thyroid contains both type I and type II cAMP-dependent protein kinases. These isozymes were selectively activated in vitro by type-I-directed and type-II-directed analog pairs. In thyroid slices, both type-I directed and type II-directed analog pairs synergistically activated thyroid hormone synthesis, as measured by incorporation of 131I into proteins and thyroid hormone secretion as determined by the release of butanol-extractable 131I. In primary cultures of dog thyroid cells both isozyme-directed analog pairs synergistically enhanced iodide trapping, a marker of differentiation, and DNA synthesis, as measured by the percentage of cells incorporating [3H]thymidine into their nuclei. However, DNA synthesis was more sensitive to type-I-directed pairs. The results demonstrate that both cAMP-dependent protein kinase isozymes can mediate the action of cAMP on function, differentiation expression and cell proliferation in dog thyroid cells.
Abstract: Thyrotropin (TSH), through cyclic AMP, promotes both proliferation and differentiation expression in dog thyroid epithelial cells in primary culture, whereas the tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA) also stimulates proliferation but antagonizes differentiating effects of TSH. In this study, within 20 min both factors triggered the disruption of actin-containing stress fibers. This process preceded distinct morphological changes: cytoplasmic retraction and arborization in response to TSH and cyclic AMP, cell shape distortion, and increased motility in response to TPA and cyclic AMP, cell shape distortion, and increased motility in response to TPA and diacylglycerol. TSH and TPA also induced a marked decrease in the synthesis of three high Mr tropomyosin isoforms, which were not present in dog thyroid tissue but appeared in culture during cell spreading and stress fiber formation. In contrast, the synthesis of two low Mr forms of tropomyosin that were already present in thyroid tissue remained unchanged after treatment with TSH or TPA. Epidermal growth factor, another mitogenic and dedifferentiating factor for these cells, did not induce acute morphological changes, nor modification of tropomyosin synthesis. The tropomyosin isoform switching observed here closely resembled similar processes in various cells transformed by oncogenic viruses. However, it did not correlate with differentiation or mitogenic activation. Contrasting with current hypothesis on this process in transformed cells, tropomyosin isoform switching in normal thyroid cells was preceded and thus might be caused by early disruption of stress fibers.
Abstract: The role of cyclic AMP (cAMP) in the regulation of mammalian cell proliferation has been the subject of controversy. Negative control was demonstrated in the 1970s, but evidence of positive control in other cell types has been neglected. Recent evidence which demonstrates such a control in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has now made this concept acceptable.
Abstract: Previous studies of human thyroid cells in culture (mostly from pathological tissues) failed to demonstrate a mitogenic effect of TSH, leading to the proposal that the growth effect of TSH in vivo might be indirect. To reexamine the influence of TSH on DNA synthesis and cell proliferation, we established primary cultures of normal thyroid tissue from nine subjects. When seeded in a 1% serum-supplemented medium, thyroid follicles released by collagenase/dispase digestion developed as a cell monolayer that responded to TSH by rounding up and by cytoplasmic retraction. When seeded in serum-free medium, the cells remained associated in dense aggregates surrounded by few slowly spreading cells. In the latter condition, the cells responded to TSH and other stimulators of cAMP production, such as cholera toxin and forskolin, by displaying very high iodide-trapping levels. Exposure to serum irreversibly abolished this differentiated function. TSH stimulated the proliferation (as shown by DNA content per culture dish) of 1% serum cultured cells (doubling times were reduced from 106 to 76 h) and increased by 100% the [3H]thymidine labeling indices. In serum-free cultured cells (dense aggregates or cell monolayers after initial seeding with serum), control levels of DNA synthesis were lower, and up to 8-fold stimulation of DNA synthesis occurred in response to 100 mU/L TSH (stimulation was consistently detected with 20 mU/L), based on measurements of [3H]thymidine incorporation into acid-precipitable material and counts of labeled nuclei on autoradiographs (up to 40% labeled nuclei within 24 h). The mitogenic effect of TSH required a high insulin concentration (8.3 X 10(-7) mol/L) or a low insulin-like growth factor I concentration. The mitogenic effects of TSH were mimicked in part by cholera toxin, forskolin, and dibutyryl cAMP. Epidermal growth factor and phorbol myristate ester also stimulated thyroid cell proliferation and DNA synthesis, but they potently inhibited TSH-stimulated iodide transport. We conclude that TSH, acting at least in part through cAMP, is a potent growth factor for human thyroid cells and thus provide an experimental basis in vitro for the well established in vivo goitrogenic action of TSH.
Abstract: Protein phosphorylation was studied in primary cultures of thyroid epithelial cells after the addition of different mitogens: thyrotropin (TSH) acting through cyclic AMP, epidermal growth factor (EGF), or 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). EGF or TPA increased the phosphorylation of five common polypeptides. Among these, two 42-kilodalton proteins contained phosphotyrosine and phosphoserine with or without phosphothreonine. Their characteristics suggested that they are similar to the two 42-kilodalton target proteins for tyrosine protein phosphorylation demonstrated in fibroblasts in response to mitogens. No common phosphorylated proteins were detected in TSH-treated cells and in EGF- or TPA-treated cells. The differences in the protein phosphorylation patterns in response to TSH, EGF, and TPA suggested that the newly emerging cyclic AMP-mediated mitogenic pathway is distinct from the better known growth factor- and tumor promoter-induced pathways.
Abstract: In dog thyroid epithelial cells in primary culture, thyrotropin acting through cyclic AMP induced rapid morphological changes associated with complete disruption of actin containing stress fibers. This modification preceded cell retraction and rounding up. These morphological effects were also induced by glass capillary microinjection of purified catalytic subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase. This provides the first direct evidence in intact cells that catalytic subunit, which is released upon activation of cAMP-dependent protein kinases, is responsible for cAMP-dependent morphological transformation.
Abstract: We have developed primary cultures of epithelial follicular cells from normal human thyroid tissue, in low serum or serum-free conditions, which allow the in vitro experimentation of the hormonal control of growth. In sharp contrast with several previous studies, thyrotropin (100 microU/ml) potently stimulated the DNA synthesis and proliferation of these cells. These effects were partly reproduced by cyclic AMP agonists. Human thyroid cell proliferation was also increased by serum, epidermal growth factor and a tumor promoting phorbol ester.
Abstract: Dog thyroid epithelial follicular cells in primary culture are quiescent in an insulin-supplemented serum-free medium. They are induced, after a 16- to 20-h prereplicative phase, to synthesize DNA upon stimulation by forskolin, a general adenylate cyclase activator that mimics all the effects of thyrotropin in these cells. The characteristics of adenylate cyclase activation by forskolin make this drug a convenient tool to enhance cellular cyclic AMP levels for well-defined periods of the cell cycle, allowing determination of which parts of the prereplicative phase are controlled by cyclic AMP. We observe that induction of DNA synthesis by forskolin requires its continuous presence for most of the prereplicative phase until a point that little precedes the initiation of DNA replication. Before this point, interruptions in forskolin presence as short as 2 h delay the onset of DNA synthesis, indicating a rapid regression of the cells to an earlier part of G1 from which they can be rescued by forskolin readdition. Similar delays in the onset of S phase are also induced by reversible protein synthesis inhibitions using pulses of cycloheximide. These data suggest that in dog thyrocytes elevated cyclic AMP levels stimulate the progression into G1 phase until a late commitment point before DNA synthesis. This progression depends on peculiarly labile cyclic AMP-stimulated events which might well be the induction by cyclic AMP of the synthesis of labile proteins.
Abstract: We have investigated the growth effects of thyrotropin (TSH) (mimicked by forskolin and acting through cyclic AMP), epidermal growth factor (EGF), serum (10%) and insulin on quiescent dog thyroid epithelial cells in primary culture in a serum-free defined medium. These cells were previously shown to retain the capacity to express major thyroid differentiation markers. In the presence of insulin and after a similar prereplicative phase of 18 +/- 2h, TSH, EGF, and serum promoted DNA synthesis in such quiescent cells only a minority of which had proliferated in vitro before stimulation. The combination of these factors induced more than 90% of the cells to enter S phase within 48 h and near exponetial proliferation. Analysis of the cell cycle parameters of the stimulated cells revealed that the G1 period duration was similar to the length of the prereplicative phase of quiescent thyroid cells; this might indicate that they were in fact in an early G1 stage rather than in G0 prior to stimulation. TSH and EGF action depended on or was potentiated by insulin. Strikingly, nanomolar concentrations of insulin were sufficient to support stimulation of DNA synthesis by TSH, while micromolar concentrations of insulin were required for the action of EGF. This suggests that insulin supported the action of TSH by acting on its own high affinity receptors, whereas its effect on EGF action would be related to its somatomedinlike effects at high supraphysiological concentrations. Insulin stimulated the progression in the prereplicative phase initiated by TSH or forskolin. In addition, in some primary cultures TSH must act together with insulin to stimulate early events of the prereplicative phase. In the presence of insulin, EGF, and forskolin, an adenylate cyclase activator, markedly synergized to induce DNA synthesis. Addition of forskolin 24 h after EGF or EGF 24 h after forskolin also resulted in amplification of the growth response but with a lag equal to the prereplicative period observed with the single compound. This indicates that events induced by the second factor can no longer be integrated during the prereplicative phase set by the first factor. These findings demonstrate the importance of synergistic cooperation between hormones and growth factors for the induction of DNA synthesis in epithelial thyroid cells and support the proposal that essentially different mitogenic pathways--cyclic AMP-dependent or independent--may coexist in one cell.
Abstract: 12-O-Tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) and 4 beta-phorbol 12, 13-dibutyrate (PDBU) are potent tumor promoters and share several biological activities of epidermal growth factor (EGF). We have shown previously that EGF stimulates DNA synthesis and proliferation and inhibits TSH-induced markers of differentiation in dog thyroid follicle-derived primary cultures. Using this system, we have examined the biological action of TPA and PDBU in reference to that of EGF. Low concentrations (1.6-16 nM) and to a lesser extent higher concentrations (greater than 1.6 microM) of TPA and PDBU stimulated cell proliferation in a 1% serum, hormone-supplemented medium and triggered the DNA synthesis revealed by autoradiography in cells which were quiescent before stimulation in serum-free conditions. EGF, TSH, and dibutyryl cyclic adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate separately also induce DNA synthesis, but they produce little if any effects additive to those of TPA. In fact, TPA appeared to inhibit the mitogenic effects of EGF. Moreover like EGF, phorbol esters strongly inhibited in 2 days the morphological effects of TSH and basal and TSH-stimulated iodide transport capacity and thyroglobulin messenger RNA accumulation, two markers of thyroid differentiation. TPA also inhibited the expression of differentiation stimulated by dibutyryl cyclic adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate indicating a post-cyclic adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate site of action. TPA and EGF shared long-term morphological effects such as the induction of an elongated fusiform shape, but not acute effects. The thyroid cells progressively and spontaneously escaped both the mitogenic and differentiation-inhibiting effects of TPA and PDBU, while, as shown previously, these parameters are stably modified by continuous culture with EGF. This suggests specific desensitization processes to phorbol esters. As evidence is accumulating that phorbol esters act at least partly by stimulating the calcium-activated, phospholipid-dependent protein kinase C, our results shed light on the possible key role of this kinase in carcinogenesis and in the normal control of proliferation and expression of differentiation in the thyroid gland. Additionally they suggest that complex interactions occur between the mechanisms of action of EGF and of phorbol esters in the thyroid cell.
Abstract: Effects on Ca++ translocation and [Ca++]i were studied in dog thyroïd cell monolayers using both 45Ca++ efflux and the indicator quin-2. Carbamylcholine, a non hydrolysable analog of acetylcholine, through muscarinic receptors, and to a lesser extent TRH and PGF2 alpha increased both these parameters. [Ca++]i increased by 171, 100 and 75% respectively over a basal level of 66 +/- 17 nM (mean +/- SD). The response to carbamylcholine was biphasic. A transient increase in [Ca++]i was followed by a more sustained phase where the [Ca++]i was slightly higher than the basal level. Only the first phase was insensitive to extracellular Ca++ depletion. This phase is probably due to a release of Ca++ from an intracellular store. NaF also induced a sustained rise in [Ca++]i dependent on extracellular Ca++ and affected 45Ca++ efflux. Our data provide direct evidence of an implication of intracellular Ca++ in the response of dog thyroïd cells to all these agents.
Abstract: Protein synthesis in the G1 period of the cell cycle has been investigated using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis in primary cultures of dog quiescent thyroid cells, incubated in defined medium and induced to proliferate by the combined action of thyrotropin (TSH), epidermal growth factor (EGF) and serum or by each of these agents, acting alone. The analysis of the proteins, pulse-labeled for 3 h with [35S]methionine, in quiescent cells deprived of serum and in cells that had been stimulated for various periods of time by the addition of TSH, EGF and serum showed maximal modifications before entry into S phase: the labeling of at least ten proteins was enhanced while that of at least six proteins was decreased. The synthesis of one of these proteins (protein 1; Mr approximately equal to 81 000) was maximal 9-12 h after stimulation by the proliferative agents but began to decrease at 15-18 h and was still decreased at 29-32 h. The study of the effect of each of the proliferation agents alone on the labeling of these sixteen proteins showed that TSH specifically stimulated the labeling of eight polypeptides (proteins 2-9) and that, in contrast, EGF and serum specifically increased the labeling of two other proteins (proteins 1 and 10). The labeling of one protein was decreased by each of the different agents (protein 6') while TSH specifically decreased the labeling of four polypeptides (proteins 1'-4') and increased the labeling of one polypeptide (protein 5') whose synthesis was decreased by EGF and serum. The specific effect of TSH on one protein labeling (protein 7; Mr approximately equal to 39 000) was potentiated by EGF and serum while the specific effect of EGF and serum on another protein labeling (protein 1) was potentiated by TSH. There is thus a correlation between the level of synthesis of these two proteins and the proliferative state of the cells, which is much greater when the stimulating agents are acting together. The induction of protein 1 synthesis by EGF was no longer observed when the cells were no longer proliferating. In the same way, TSH no longer stimulated the synthesis of protein 7 in thyroid cells at confluence. In conclusion, the present study has identified some proteins (proteins 1 and 7) which, as judged by the peculiar stimulation and the kinetics of their synthesis, could be part of the final key events triggering DNA replication in thyroid cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Abstract: Primary cultures of dog thyroid cells have been used to study the effects of thyrotropin on the synthesis of proteins. The cells were cultured for 4 days in serum-free and thyrotropin-free conditions. Thyrotropin was then added for varying periods of time (6-96 h). In the absence of thyrotropin, the cells have an elongated flattened aspect. Exposure to thyrotropin for 6-24 h produces retraction and rounding up of cells whereas cells incubated with thyrotropin for longer periods of time have an epithelial cuboidal shape. After varying periods of culture the cells were labelled with [35S]methionine for 6 h and then analyzed by one- and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, followed by autoradiography. The results were as follows. After exposure to thyrotropin for 32 h and 48 h, the synthesis of about 18 proteins was increased while that of about 14 others was decreased. After 6 h the labelling of three and five of these proteins was already increased or decreased, respectively. Some of the proteins whose synthesis is modified in the presence of thyrotropin were identified. Actin synthesis was markedly decreased with a maximum 24-48 h after the addition of thyrotropin. A modification in the ratio between alpha and beta tubulins was also observed together with very large changes in a group of proteins having both the relative molecular mass (30 000-40 000) and the isoelectric points of tropomyosins. Forskolin and cholera toxin caused the same qualitative and quantitative changes as thyrotropin; this suggests that the regulation by thyrotropin of the synthesis of several thyroid cell proteins is mediated by cAMP. In conclusion, the data obtained in this work might help to explain the molecular mechanisms by which thyrotropin (and cAMP) triggers the changes in cell shape which occur during thyroid cell culture. They also indicate that one of the main effects of thyrotropin takes place at the level of several proteins which belong to the cytoskeleton and which are involved in the definition of the cytostructure of the thyroid cells.
Abstract: Both thyrotropin (TSH) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) are potent mitogenic agents when added to dog thyroid cells in primary culture [Roger, P. P. and Dumont, J. E. (1984) Mol. Cell. Endocrinol. 36, 79-93]. The concomitant effect of these agents on the differentiation state of the cells was appreciated using cell morphology, iodide trapping, thyroglobulin synthesis and cytoplasmic thyroglobulin mRNA content as markers. Together with previous results [Mol. Cell. Endocrinol. 36, 79-93 (1984)] it is shown that cells cultured in the continuous presence of TSH maintain all the parameters at a near normal level. In the absence of TSH, thyroglobulin mRNA decreased to very low, though still detectable levels. Addition of TSH restored subnormal mRNA levels. Culture of cells in the presence of EGF for 4-6 days affected profoundly their morphology, abolished iodide trapping and decreased thyroglobulin synthesis and cytoplasmic mRNA content to undetectable levels. Addition of TSH to cells previously exposed to EGF reversed the growth factor effect on all four indexes. The redifferentiating effect of TSH was well observed within 3-4 days and was mimicked by the adenylate cyclase activators, forskolin and cholera toxin. When administered simultaneously, TSH and EGF achieved an intermediate situation, EGF antagonizing partially the effect of TSH on the expression of thyroglobulin gene. Another growth factor, fibroblast growth factor, while promoting thyroid cell proliferation also, did not interfere at all with TSH effects on cytoplasmic thyroglobulin mRNA content. Our results make the dog thyroid cell in primary culture an appropriate model to study the mechanisms involved in gene regulation by cyclic AMP and growth factors.
Abstract: Dog thyroid cells in primary culture in a low serum, hormone-supplemented medium represent a model system which allows the direct in vitro study of long-term hormonal effects, both on proliferation and differentiation. The cells exhibited various morphological responses to thyrotropin (TSH): rapid induction of cytoplasmic arborization, persistence of a cuboidal epithelial shape, and formation of domes. Moreover, TSH promoted cell proliferation and biochemical expression of differentiation: high levels of iodide transport and, to a lesser extent, iodide binding to protein. All the TSH effects were completely reproduced by specific activators of adenylate cyclase--cholera toxin and the diterpene forskolin--or by dibutyryl cyclic AMP, which indicates that they are mediated by cyclic AMP (cAMP). We showed that epidermal growth factor (EGF) and pituitary fibroblast growth factor (FGF) are potent mitogens for the dog thyroid cells. Moreover, chronic exposure to EGF induced a striking fibroblast-like morphology and inhibited all the studied characteristics of morphological and biochemical differentiation stimulated by TSH. The effects of EGF were reversible after its wash-out. Other mitogenic treatments, FGF or high serum concentrations, did not reproduce the dedifferentiation effects of EGF, suggesting that they are not directly dependent on mitogenic stimulation. As the effects of EGF were obtained in the range of physiological concentrations, the role of this hormone in the regulation of the thyroid gland is discussed.
Abstract: The production of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) by cultured dog thyroid cells was high in a serum-containing medium and low in a serum-free, completely defined medium. Thyrotropin (TSH) and epidermal growth factor (EGF), two mitogenic factors for these cells, did not stimulate PGE2 release. Indomethacin, at a concentration which completely inhibited PGE2 production, had no effect on thyroid cell multiplication and DNA synthesis stimulated by TSH and EGF. It is concluded that cyclooxygenase products are not involved in the proliferation of canine thyroid cells and its control by TSH.
Abstract: Cell proliferation and the expression of differentiated functions are generally considered to be mutually exclusive states of the cell. Thyrotrophin activates the expression of differentiated functions in dog thyroid cells by means of cyclic AMP. We have recently shown that thyrotrophin also acts through the same intracellular signal molecule to enhance proliferation of dog thyroid cells in primary cultures. In this work we showed that such primary cultures exhibit three successive phases: a latency period during which the expression of differentiated functions (iodide trapping and organification) declined, the cells still being associated with structures derived from the seeded follicles; a cell-proliferation phase with little expression of these functions, the cells being spread in a monolayer; a stationary phase with cell density reaching a plateau but no re-expression of the functions. Thyrotrophin promoted proliferation during the multiplication phase, but induced redifferentiation during the stationary phase. These effects were mimicked by cholera toxin and dibutyryl cyclic AMP, which suggested that they were mediated by cyclic AMP. Iodide uptake was also stimulated by cortisol. Thyrotrophin therefore has a different action in dog thyroid cells depending on the state of the cells. The spontaneous arrest of multiplication appears to make the cells competent to respond to thyrotrophin by the induction of redifferentiation.
Abstract: We have developed serum-free primary cultures of differentiated follicular dog thyroid cells which allow the study of the hormonal control of cell proliferation. The cooperation of insulin and increasing cellular cyclic AMP by thyrotropin triggers the DNA synthesis and the proliferation. Dog thyroid cells are an example of a system in which cyclic AMP is a sufficient signal to stimulate the proliferation in quiescent cells.
Abstract: Primary cultures of dog thyroid cells have been established. The cells originated from follicles and displayed differentiation characteristics of such cells: iodide trapping and organification, responsiveness of iodide organification and cyclic AMP accumulation to thyrotropin (TSH), induction of a two-dimensional follicular structure by TSH. TSH also stimulated the multiplication of these cells. The effect of TSH was detected with concentrations as low as 100 muU/ml and was reproduced with purified TSH. It was reproduced by cholera toxin (10 ng/ml) and dibutyryl cyclic AMP (10(-5) M). The data show that TSH, which stimulates the function of thyroid tissue, in vivo and in vitro, activates the multiplication of differentiated dog-thyroid follicular cells in primary culture, which suggests that this trophic effect is, partly at least, mediated by cyclic AMP.
