Molecular dissection of human oncostatin M-mediated signal transductions through site-directed mutagenesis

The binding of oncostatin M (OM) to type I and type II receptor complexes elicits various biological responses by activating MEK/ERK and JAK/STAT signaling pathways. Some OM effects are clinically desirable such as reducing hyperlipidemia through the activation of hepatic LDL receptor transcription, a downstream event of ERK activation. The OM pro-inflammatory responses via induction of acute phase protein gene expression have been associated with STAT activation. In this study, by conducting site-directed mutagenesis, bioassays and molecular modeling we have defined 4 OM residues that are differently involved in the activation of ERK or STAT signaling pathway in HepG2 cells. We show that mutation of Lys163 to alanine totally abolished OM-mediated signaling, possibly because such mutation causes the disruption of a stabilizing H-bond pattern at the OM interface with receptors. G120A mutation equally impaired activations of ERK and STAT signaling pathways also by impairing the OM/cognate protein interactions. Interestingly, mutations of Gln20 and Asn123 differentially affected OM signaling through the two pathways. Q20A and N123A retained strong activity in inducing ERK phosphorylation but they showed diminished ability in activating STAT1 and STAT3. We further showed that mutations at Gln20 and Asn123 reduced OM induction of inflammatory gene fibrinogen-beta to a greater extent than that of LDL receptor gene. The mutation of Asn123 is directly related to local structural modification at site 3 of OM. Collectively these results provide a structural basis of OM-mediated signaling and suggest a potential to improve OM therapeutic properties via structural modification.