Plasminogen activator gene expression is induced by the src oncogene product and tumor promoters.

Secretion of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) by chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEF) is increased approximately 50-fold following transformation by Rous sarcoma virus (RSV). Using a cloned and fully sequenced chicken uPA cDNA probe, we have established that this increase in plasminogen activator production can be largely accounted for by an increase in cellular uPA mRNA. CEF contained on average less than 1 molecule of uPA mRNA/cell, whereas RSV-CEF contained 25-60 molecules/cell. The increase in cellular uPA mRNA levels was dependent on the activity of the RSV-encoded transforming protein, protein-tyrosine kinase pp60v-src. Cells infected with an RSV mutant encoding a temperature-sensitive form of the src protein (ts-NY68) contained low uPA mRNA levels when cultured at the nonpermissive temperature and high uPA mRNA levels when maintained at the permissive temperature. Temperature shift studies with tsNY68-CEF demonstrated that changes in pp60v-src activity rapidly altered uPA mRNA levels; the uPA mRNA content of total RNA extracts increased and decreased with half-time kinetics of 3-5 h. Serine/threonine-specific protein kinases also appear to modulate uPA mRNA levels in CEF cultures. Exposure of CEF and RSV-CEF for 24 h to the protein kinase C activating agent phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) increased cellular uPA mRNA levels to 20 and 260 molecules/cell, respectively. These data are consistent with the previously observed synergism between RSV and PMA in increasing plasminogen activator secretion. Nuclear run-on transcription analyses established that both RSV and PMA increase cellular uPA mRNA levels by way of increased uPA gene expression.