Inhibitory effects of interferon on the expression of genes regulated by platelet-derived growth factor.

The G0/G1 to S transition in quiescent BALB/c 3T3 cells stimulated by serum growth factors can be specifically blocked by the administration of interferon (IFN) to the system. In the present communication, we studied whether IFN inhibits the early events in the G0/G1 phase that are initiated by the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF). The results show that IFN inhibits most of the PDGF-mediated increase of c-myc, ornithine decarboxylase, and beta-actin mRNAs measured 3 hr after stimulation. c-fos mRNA levels are reduced by IFN as early as 20 min after exposure of the quiescent cells to PDGF. The expression of several genes that belong to the competence gene family is, therefore, inhibited by IFN and this could account for the failure of the IFN-treated cells to enter into the S phase when growth factors present in the platelet-poor plasma are added. We also report that the PDGF-mediated increase in the uptake of deoxyglucose is not impaired by IFN, thus suggesting that the early effects of IFN on gene expression do not result from inhibition of binding of PDGF to its cell-surface receptors. Unlike the direct stimulatory effect of PDGF, which is not sensitive to cycloheximide, the inhibitory effect of IFN on c-myc mRNA levels depends in part on protein synthesis. We propose that a putative product of one of the IFN-induced genes could mediate the decrease in expression of the PDGF-regulated gene family.