Endothelin-1 stimulates tyrosine phosphorylation and the activities of two mitogen-activated protein kinases in cultured vascular smooth muscle cells

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Abstract
Endothelin-1 (ET-1) has been reported to stimulate the expression of the proto-oncogenes c-fos and c-myc, and to cause DNA synthesis in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). The purpose of this study was to clarify the signalling pathway from ET receptors to the nucleus.Mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase, which is activated by various growth factors via phosphorylation of tyrosine and threonine residues, plays important roles as an intermediate in the signalling pathways from growth factor receptors to the ribosomes and nucleus. We examined the effect of ET-1 on the phosphorylation and activation of MAP kinase in cultured VSMC.Extracts of ET-1-stimulated VSMC were analysed by one- and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and anion-exchange column chromatography. Tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins and MAP kinases were detected by immunoblot analyses with anti-phosphotyrosine and anti-MAP kinase antibodies, respectively. The MAP kinase activity was measured using myelin basic protein as a substrate. The MAP kinases were isolated from 32P-labelled VSMC and subjected to phosphoamino acid analysis.ET-1 induced tyrosine phosphorylation of at least five proteins of about 79, 77, 73, 45 and 40 kDa in VSMC. The mobilities of the tyrosine-phosphorylated 45- and 40-kDa proteins were identical with those of the two proteins that were recognized by anti-MAP kinase antibody upon one- and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. ET-1 stimulated MAP kinase activity in a time-course similar to that of the tyrosine phosphorylation of the 45- and 40-kDa proteins. The ET-1-stimulated MAP kinase activity was resolved almost equally into two peaks upon Mono Q column chromatography (kinase 1 and kinase 2). Kinase 1 and kinase 2 were co-eluted with the tyrosine-phosphorylated 40- and 45-kDa proteins, respectively. The apparent molecular masses of kinase 1 and kinase 2 estimated by MAP kinase assay in polyacrylamide gel were identical with those of tyrosine-phosphorylated 40- and 45-kDa proteins, respectively. Upon phosphoamino acid analysis, ET-1 stimulated phosphorylation of MAP kinases not only on tyrosine but also on threonine residues.ET-1 induces tyrosine and threonine phosphorylation and the activation of two species of MAP kinases of 40 and 45 kDa in VSMC.

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