Differentiation inducers modulate cytokine signaling pathways in a murine erythroleukemia cell line

Hexamethylenebisacetamide (HMBA) is a potent differentiation inducer of murine erythroleukemia cells. Immunoprecipitation followed by Western blotting with an anti-phosphotyrosine (P-Tyr) antibody revealed that HMBA increased P-Tyr levels and/or amounts of several proteins containing P-Tyr in F5-5, a murine erythroleukemia cell line. Among these proteins, we identified a Mr 130,000 protein to be Janus-activated kinase 2 (JAK2). HMBA induced tyrosine phosphorylation of JAK2 and signal transducers and activators of transcription 5 (STAT5) but not other JAKs or STATs. This phosphorylation was apparent 12 h after treatment, maximal at 24 h, and persisted for at least 96 h. Consistently, HMBA increased STAT5 DNA-binding activities. Other chemical inducers, DMSO and butyrate, also induced a sustained activation of JAK2/STAT5, whereas fetal calf serum and erythropoietin induced transient activation but not differentiation. Furthermore, overexpression of a dominant-negative form of STAT5 inhibited the chemically induced differentiation. These results suggest that persistent activation of the signaling pathway plays a significant role in the inducer-mediated differentiation. Our data also suggest that molecular mechanisms for the inducer-mediated activation of JAK2 are independent of cytokine receptor-mediated activation mechanisms. We tentatively conclude that cytokine signaling is an important target of chemical inducers in these cells.