Multiple kinase arrest points in the G1 phase of nontransformed mammalian cells are absent in transformed cells.

We have shown that nontransformed mammalian cells arrest early in the G1 phase of the cell cycle when treated with exceedingly low concentrations of the nonspecific kinase inhibitor staurosporine, whereas transformed cells continue to progress through the cell cycle. We have now treated normal or transformed human skin fibroblasts with four other kinase inhibitors. Three of these inhibitors are highly specific: KT5720 inhibits cAMP-dependent protein kinase, KT5823 inhibits cGMP-dependent protein kinase, and KT5926 inhibits myosin light-chain kinase. The fourth inhibitor K252b has a moderate specificity for protein kinase C but also inhibits the three kinases just mentioned. We have found that these inhibitors reversibly arrest normal human skin fibroblasts at different times in the G1 phase but do not affect the cell cycle progression of transformed cells. The times of arrest within the G1 phase can be divided into two categories. Two of the inhibitors, KT5926 and K252b, act at an early time that is approximately 4 h after the transition from G0 to G1. The cAMP- and cGMP-dependent protein kinase inhibitors KT5720 and KT5823 arrest cells at a later time that is approximately 6 h after the G0/G1 boundary. These data indicate that there are multiple kinase-mediated phosphorylations of different substrates that are essential for the progression of normal cells, but not transformed cells, through the G1 phase. These inhibitors provide us with a set of biochemical probes that should be invaluable in the study of the function of kinases during G1 phase progression of normal cells.