Selective increases in isoform PP1 alpha of type-1 protein phosphatase in ascites hepatoma cells

The amounts of four isoforms of the catalytic subunit of type-1 protein phosphatases, PP1 alpha, PP1 gamma 1, PP1 gamma 2, and PP1 delta, have been determined in extracts of rat ascites hepatomas, AH131A, AH13, AH13NMOR, AH143A, and Yoshida sarcoma, and compared to those of rat liver by Western blot analysis. The amount of PP1 alpha was increased over three times in all five hepatomas. The amount of PP1 gamma 1 was increased over two times in AH13, AH13NMOR, and AH143A. The amount of PP1 delta was selectively increased about 4 times in AH131A and AH143A. The PP1 gamma 2 protein was undetectable in both liver and hepatomas. There was good parallelism between the general increase in only PP1 alpha protein in the hepatomas and the previous data demonstrating the general increase in PP1 alpha mRNA in numerous ascites hepatomas. These results suggest that PP1 alpha plays important roles in the expression of malignant phenotype, that its amount is under strict control at the transcription level, and that PP1 gamma 1 and PP1 delta play different roles in the expression of some phenotype(s) of the ascites hepatomas.