Consequences of Stat6 deletion on Sis/PDGF- and IL-4-induced proliferation and transcriptional activation in murine fibroblasts

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Abstract
Aberrant communication among growth factors and cytokines that regulate tissue homeostasis often results in malignancy. Among the many cell types that participate in this process, stromal fibroblasts communicate in a paracrine and juxtracrine manner with cells of epithelial, endothelial, and hematopoietic origin. For fibroblasts, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) is a major proliferative and differentiation agent. Interleukin-4 (IL-4), however, possesses only modulating functions in this cell type. Here, we investigated the consequences of deleting Stat6 on PDGF and IL-4 signaling, proliferation, and transcriptional activation by establishing and characterizing early passage fibroblasts from wild-type and Stat6 null mice. Both wild-type and Stat6−/− fibroblasts showed nearly identical PDGFR and IL-4R activation, gross substrate tyrosine phosphorylation, PI 3-kinase activation, as well as Stat1, 3 and 5 DNA binding activities. Unexpectedly, IL-4's enhancement of PDGF-induced [3H]thymidine incorporation was greatly diminished in Stat6−/−, but not wild-type fibroblasts. PDGF-induced [3H]thymidine uptake was largely unaffected. Strikingly, IL-4, but not PDGF induction of the proinflammatory gene products, IL-6 and MCP-1 was markedly reduced in Stat6−/− fibroblasts. Thus, Stat6 is an important and specific mediator of IL-4-enhanced PDGF-induced proliferation as well as IL-4's transcriptional activation of IL-6 and MCP-1.