Regulation of biosynthesis and phosphorylation of P210bcr/abl protein during differentiation induction of K 562 cells.

The changes of P210bcr/abl and other tyrosine phosphorylated proteins in K562 cells during growth and differentiation were studied by metabolic labeling with 32PO4 and immunoprecipitation with anti-phosphotyrosine sera. The anti-phosphotyrosine sera recognized P210bcr/abl and other phosphoproteins with mol wt of 150, 115, 100, 70 and 64 kD. The 2-day incubation of K562 cells with inducers for differentiation, hemin, sodium butyrate and TPA, decreased the level of P210bcr/abl protein and other phosphoproteins. Inhibitors of tyrosine protein kinase, amiloride and genistein, also reduced the phosphorylation of P210bcr/abl protein and other substrates, but did not induce differentiation of the cells. Although most of these additives inhibited the cell growth, cytotoxic agents such as adriamycin, vincristine and Ara-C did not affect the level of P210bcr/abl protein. The experiments using 35S-methionine labeled cells and the immunoprecipitation with anti-abl sera suggested that reduced biosynthesis but not dephosphorylation of P210bcr/abl protein mainly accounted for the reduction of P210bcr/abl protein reacting to anti-phosphotyrosine sera in differentiation-induced cells. These results indicate that the reduction of P210bcr/abl protein synthesis plays some roles in cellular differentiation of K562 cells.