The HeLa cell glucagon-like peptide-2 receptor is coupled to regulation of apoptosis and ERK1/2 activation through divergent signaling pathways.

Glucagon-like peptide-2 (GLP-2) regulates proliferative and cytoprotective pathways in the intestine; however GLP-2 receptor (GLP-2R) signal transduction remains poorly understood, and cell lines that express the endogenous GLP-2R have not yet been isolated. We have now identified several expressed sequence tags from human cervical carcinoma cDNA libraries that correspond to GLP-2R nucleotide sequences. GLP-2R mRNA transcripts were detected by RT-PCR in two human cervical carcinoma cell lines, including HeLa cells. GLP-2 increased cAMP accumulation and activated ERK1/2 in HeLa cells transiently expressing the cloned human HeLa cell GLP-2R cDNA. However, the GLP-2R-induced activation of ERK1/2 was not mediated through Galphas, adenylyl cyclase, or transactivation of the epidermal growth factor receptor, but was pertussis toxin sensitive, inhibited by dominant negative Ras, and dependent on betagamma-subunits. GLP-2 also induced a significant increase in bromodeoxyuridine incorporation that was blocked by dominant negative Ras. Furthermore, GLP-2 inhibited HeLa cell apoptosis induced by LY294002 in a protein kinase A-dependent, but ERK-independent, manner. These findings demonstrate that the HeLa cell GLP-2R differentially signals through both Galphas/cAMP- and Gi/Go-dependent pathways, illustrating for the first time that the GLP-2R is capable of coupling to multiple heterotrimeric G proteins defining distinct GLP-2R-dependent biological actions.