Hepatocyte growth factor-induced differential activation of phospholipase cgamma 1 and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase is regulated by tyrosine phosphatase SHP-1 in astrocytes.

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) elicits pleiotropic effects on various types of cells through the c-Met receptor tyrosine kinase. However, the mechanisms underlying the diverse responses of cells remain unknown. We show here that HGF promoted chemokinesis of rat primary astrocytes through the activation of phosphatidylinositol 3 (PI3)-kinase without any influence on mitogenesis of the cells. Under the same condition, phospholipase Cgamma1 (PLCgamma1), which is another signal mediator of c-Met, was not tyrosine-phosphorylated during HGF stimulation. However, treatment of the cells with orthovanadate, a tyrosine phosphatase inhibitor, restored the HGF-induced tyrosine phosphorylation of PLCgamma1. A tyrosine phosphatase, SHP-1, was associated with both PI3-kinase and PLCgamma1 before HGF stimulation, but it was dissociated only from PI3-kinase after the stimulation. Furthermore, transfectants of catalytically inactive mutant of SHP-1 showed tyrosine phosphorylation of PLCgamma1 and mitogenic responses to HGF, and the mitogenic response was blocked with, an inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol-specific PLC, and calphostin C, an inhibitor of protein kinase C downstream of the PLCgamma1. These results indicate that PLCgamma1 is selectively prevented from being a signal mediator by constitutive association of SHP-1, and that this selective inhibition of PLCgamma1 may determine the cellular response of astrocytes to HGF.