Control of thrombopoietin-induced megakaryocytic differentiation by the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway

Thrombopoietin (TPO) is the major regulator of both growth and differentiation of megakaryocytes. We previously showed that both functions can be generated by TPO in the megakaryoblastic cell line UT7, in which murine Mpl was introduced, and are independently controlled by distinct regions of the cytoplasmic domain of Mpl. Particularly, residues 71 to 94 of this domain (deleted in the mutant mpl delta3) were found to be required for megakaryocytic maturation but dispensable for proliferation. We show here that TPO-induced differentiation in UT7 cells is tightly dependent on a strong, long-lasting activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. Indeed, (i) in UT7-mpl cells, TPO induced a strong activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) which was persistent until at least 4 days in TPO-containing medium; (ii) a specific MAPK kinase (MEK) inhibitor inhibited TPO-induced megakaryocytic gene expression; (iii) the Mpl mutant mpl delta3, which displayed no maturation activity, transduced only a weak and transient ERK activation in UT7 cells; and (iv) TPO-induced megakaryocytic differentiation in UT7-mpl delta3 cells was partially restored by expression of a constitutively activated mutant of MEK. The capacity of TPO to trigger a strong and prolonged MAPK signal depended on the cell in which Mpl was introduced. In BAF3-mpl cells, TPO triggered a weak and transient ERK activation, similar to that induced in UT7-mpl delta3 cells. In these cells, no difference in MAPK activation was found between normal Mpl and mpl delta3. Thus, depending on the cellular context, several distinct regions of the cytoplasmic domain of Mpl and signaling pathways may contribute to generate quantitative variations in MAPK activation.