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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 294/5/C1169    most recent 00096.2008v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Taurin, S. Articles by Dulin, N. O. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Taurin, S. Articles by Dulin, N. O.

RECEPTORS AND SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION

Phosphorylation of β-catenin by PKA promotes ATP-induced proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells

Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Submitted 17 February 2008 ; accepted in final form 17 March 2008

Extracellular ATP stimulates proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) through activation of G protein-coupled P2Y purinergic receptors. We have previously shown that ATP stimulates a transient activation of protein kinase A (PKA), which, together with the established mitogenic signaling of purinergic receptors, promotes proliferation of VSMC (Hogarth DK, Sandbo N, Taurin S, Kolenko V, Miano JM, Dulin NO. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 287: C449–C456, 2004). We also have shown that PKA can phosphorylate β-catenin at two novel sites (Ser552 and Ser675) in vitro and in overexpression cell models (Taurin S, Sandbo N, Qin Y, Browning D, Dulin NO. J Biol Chem 281: 9971–9976, 2006). β-Catenin promotes cell proliferation by activation of a family of T-cell factor (TCF) transcription factors, which drive the transcription of genes implicated in cell cycle progression including cyclin D1. In the present study, using the phosphospecific antibodies against phospho-Ser552 or phospho-Ser675 sites of β-catenin, we show that ATP can stimulate PKA-dependent phosphorylation of endogenous β-catenin at both of these sites without affecting its expression levels in VSMC. This translates to a PKA-dependent stimulation of TCF transcriptional activity through an increased association of phosphorylated (by PKA) β-catenin with TCF-4. Using the PKA inhibitor PKI or dominant negative TCF-4 mutant, we show that ATP-induced cyclin D1 promoter activation, cyclin D1 protein expression, and proliferation of VSMC are all dependent on PKA and TCF activities. In conclusion, we show a novel mode of regulation of endogenous β-catenin through its phosphorylation by PKA, and we demonstrate the importance of this mechanism for ATP-induced proliferation of VSMC.

purinergic; protein kinase A; cyclin D1