Effects of hormone and cellular modulators of protein phosphorylation on transcriptional activity, DNA binding, and phosphorylation of human progesterone receptors.

Human progesterone receptors (PR) in T47D breast cancer cells are synthesized as two different sized proteins, PR-A [94 kilodaltons (kDa)] and PR-B (120 kDa). Progestin addition to cells (in vivo) causes a 2-fold increase in total phosphorylation of PR and an increase in the apparent mol wt of both PR-A and PR-B on sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-gels. Time-course experiments showed that increased PR phosphorylation that results from hormone addition is a multistep process and involves a rapid increase into total 32P labeling that takes place before the more slowly occurring phosphorylation(s) responsible for the change in electrophoretic mobility of PR on SDS-gels. As an approach to test whether phosphorylation is involved in regulating PR activity, we have examined the effects of cellular modulators of protein phosphorylation on PR-mediated target gene transcription in vivo using a T47D cloned cell line containing a stably transfected mouse mammary tumor virus-chloramphenicol acetyltransferase construct. Treatment with 8-bromo-cAMP (activator of cAMP-dependent protein kinases) or okadaic acid (protein phosphatase-1 and -2A inhibitor) did not stimulate target gene expression in the absence of progestin. When added together with progestin, either compound augmented PR-mediated target gene transcription by 3- to 4-fold. The cyclic nucleotide-dependent protein kinase inhibitor H8 completely blocked target gene responsiveness to hormone. Neither 8-bromo-cAMP, okadaic acid, nor H8 altered the hormone- or DNA-binding activities of PR, as measured in vitro or affected cellular concentrations of PR. These agents, therefore, appeared to selectively modulate PR transcriptional activity. Moreover, none of these compounds altered expression from a control reporter gene, pSV2CAT, indicating that these agents affect PR-mediated processes directly and are not acting through a general effect on transcription. Effects on PR phosphorylation were assessed by measuring 32P labeling of PR in vivo. None of these treatments had a substantial effect on the extent of total 32P labeling of immune isolated PR or on the phosphorylation(s) responsible for PR up-shifts on SDS-gels. This suggests that these agents modulate PR transcriptional activity either through phosphorylation of another protein intimately involved in PR-mediated transcription or through modification of a key site(s) not measurable as a change in total PR phosphorylation or electrophoretic mobility on SDS gels.