Elevated levels of cyclin D1 protein in response to increased expression of eukaryotic initiation factor 4E

Cyclin D1 is a G1-specific cyclin that has been linked to lymphoid, parathyroid, and breast tumors. Recent studies suggested that high protein levels of cyclin D1 are not always produced when cyclin D1 mRNA is overexpressed in transfected cells, suggesting that posttranscriptional events may be important in cyclin D1 regulation. The mRNA cap-binding protein (eukaryotic initiation factor 4E [eIF-4E]) is a potential regulatory of several posttranscriptional events, and it can itself induce neoplastic transformation. Consequently, we examined eIF-4E as a potential regulator of cyclin D1. Overexpression of cyclin D1 mRNA in NIH 3T3 cells did not increase cyclin D1 protein. In contrast, overexpression of eIF-4E markedly increased the amount of cyclin D1 protein in NIH 3T3 cells. This increase was specific to cyclin D1 in comparison with the retinoblastoma gene product, c-Myc, actin, and eukaryotic initiation factor 2 alpha. We also examined cyclin D1 protein in cells expressing an estrogen receptor-Myc fusion protein because we previously found that eIF-4E increases after induction of c-myc function. In these cells, increased levels of eIF-4E protein were closely followed by increases in levels of cyclin D1 protein, but the level of cyclin D1 mRNA was not increased. We conclude that increases in cyclin D1 levels may result from increased expression of eIF-4E, and this regulation may be one determinant of cyclin D1 levels in the cell.