Tyrosine phosphorylation of the product of the c-cbl protooncogene is [corrected] induced after integrin stimulation.

Integrin crosslinking on human B cells induces tyrosine phosphorylation of a set of proteins ranging from 105 to 130 kDa, among which is the focal adhesion kinase p125FAK. Here we show that the c-CBL protooncogene product p120c-CBL is a component of these substrates. beta 1 integrin stimulation of p120c-CBL phosphorylation was observed in both transformed and normal human B cells, and was inhibited by prior treatment of cells with cytochalasin B, which disrupts the actin network. In contrast, tyrosine phosphorylation of p120c-CBL following crosslinking of the B cell antigen receptor (BCR) was not affected by cytochalasin B. Integrin stimulation of the promegakaryocytic cell line MO7e also led to a cytoskeleton-dependent tyrosine phosphorylation of p120c-CBL. In MO7e cells, this stimulation was induced by ligation of either beta 1 or beta 2 integrin, whereas only by ligation of beta 1 integrin in B cells. Tyrosine phosphorylation of p120c-CBL links phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI-3K) with the BCR signaling machinery. Although the p85 subunit of PI-3K was increased in p120c-CBL immunoprecipitates from BCR-stimulated B cells, this association was only minimally increased by beta 1 integrin ligation. The function of p120c-CBL remains unknown; however, its interactions in vitro and in vivo with Src homology 2 and 3 (SH2 and SH3) domain-containing proteins suggest that p120c-CBL has a significant function in signal transduction pathways, and therefore may play a role in integrin signaling in lymphoid and hematopoietic cells.

Stimulation of tyrosine phosphorylation after ligation of beta7 and beta1 integrins on human B cells.

B lymphocytes express several members of the integrin family of adhesion molecules that mediate cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions. In addition to beta1 integrins, predominantly alpha4 beta1, mature B cells also express alpha4 beta7, which is a receptor for vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 and fibronectin, and is also involved in the homing of B cells to mucosal sites through binding to a third ligand, mucosal address in cell adhesion molecule-1. Here we describe that crosslinking of alpha4 beta7 integrins on B cell lines and normal tonsillar B cells, induces tyrosine phosphorylation of multiple substrates of 105-130 kD, indicating that beta7 integrin plays a role as signaling molecule in B cells. This pattern of phosphorylated proteins was very similar to that induced following ligation of alpha4 beta1. Interestingly, ligation of alpha5 beta1 or alpha6 beta1 also stimulated the 105-125 kD group of phosphorylated proteins, whereas ligation of beta2 integrins did not. The focal adhesion tyrosine kinase p125FAK was identified as one of these substrates. Beta1 or beta7 mediated tyrosine phosphorylations were markedly decreased when the microfilament assembly was inhibited by cytochalasin B. These results suggest that intracellular signals initiated by different integrins in B cells may converge, to similar cytoskeleton-dependent tyrosine phosphorylated proteins.