Analysis of P210bcr-abl tyrosine protein kinase activity in various subtypes of Philadelphia chromosome-positive cells from chronic myelogenous leukemia patients.

An altered c-abl gene product (P210bcr-abl) possessing associated tyrosine protein kinase activity was recently been reported in several blast chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) cell lines. We have examined different morphological types of leukocytes directly obtained from patients at the blast crisis stage of CML for expression of P210bcr-abl tyrosine protein kinase activity. Phosphorylation of P210bcr-abl in an immune complex kinase assay using an anti-v-abl peptide serum was observed in blast cells from four Philadelphia chromosome (Ph1)-positive CML patients in blast crisis. P210bcr-abl protein kinase activity was detected regardless of whether the blast cells were of myeloid, lymphoid, or undifferentiated morphology. P210bcr-abl protein kinase activity was not detected in immune complexes either from leukocytes of four Ph1-negative CML patients in blast crisis, of five acute myelogenous leukemia patients, or in the promyelocytic cell line HL-60. Mature myeloid cells are associated with an inhibitory factor for not only P210bcr-abl protein kinase activity, but also protein kinases in general. Therefore, analyses of Ph1-positive benign phase CML myeloid cells, the majority of which are well differentiated, could not be successfully performed. The inhibition of P210bcr-abl protein kinase activity is not a specific property of mature cells from CML patients since granulocytes from a normal volunteer also demonstrated a similar effect. However, extracts of Ph1-positive cultured B-lymphocytes from a patient in benign phase demonstrated active P210bcr-abl protein indicating that the P210bcr-abl protein is expressed in an enzymatically active form in the earlier phases of CML. In addition to the previously reported P210 and P190 abl-related proteins, a novel Mr 53,000 protein was found to undergo phosphorylation at serine and tyrosine in immune complex kinase assays of two blast crisis CML cell lines (K562 and EM2) and in samples from blast crisis patients in which P210bcr-abl was detected. Peptide mapping by the Cleveland technique suggested that Mr 53,000 protein is unrelated to P210bcr-abl. Immune complex kinase assays of K562 cells with an anti-src serum (GD-11) yielded active c-src kinase and a Mr 50,000 phosphorylated protein, both of which were resistant to alkaline hydrolysis. Peptide mapping suggested that Mr 53,000 protein is related to Mr 50,000 protein which is precipitated with P210bcr-abl as an Mr 300,000 protein complex.