Expression of the c-myb proto-oncogene in bovine vascular smooth muscle cells

Previously we have shown that bovine vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) express c-myb mRNA (Reilly, C. F., Kindy, M. S., Brown, K. E., Rosenberg, R. D., and Sonenshein, G. E. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 6990-6995). Here we have characterized changes in the low level of c-myb mRNA expressed in quiescent serum-deprived subconfluent SMCs upon entry into the cell cycle. After serum stimulation, levels of c-myb mRNA increased 3-4-fold during late G1 and remained at this level during S phase. A 1.5-kilobase partial c-myb cDNA clone, isolated from a bovine SMC library, was partially sequenced and found to be 89 and 85% homologous to the human and murine c-myb genes, respectively. Using bovine and murine c-myb clones, no change in the rate of c-myb gene transcription or mRNA stability was detected during the cell cycle. Thus, the regulation of changes in c-myb mRNA levels in SMCs appears distinct from mechanisms seen in hematopoietic or fibroblastic cells. Vectors containing myb binding sites linked to the thymidine kinase promoter and the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene were transiently transfected into SMC cultures. KHK-CAT-dAX, which contains nine concatenated myb binding sites, exhibited 7-fold more activity than the parental dAX-TK-CAT vector in exponentially growing SMCs. The levels of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase activity in exponentially growing cells were approximately 2-fold higher than in cells that had been serum deprived for 24 h and were entering quiescence. Thus SMCs produce a functional c-myb protein that can activate transcription from a heterologous promoter. Furthermore, introduction of antisense c-myb oligonucleotides to quiescent serum-deprived SMC cultures severely inhibited entry of cells into S phase upon serum addition. Thus, expression of the c-myb oncogene plays an important role in cell cycle progression of SMCs.