Epidermal growth factor stimulates tyrosine phosphorylation of specific proteins in permeabilized human fibroblasts.

We have investigated the epidermal growth factor (EGF)-stimulated tyrosine-specific protein kinase activity in quiescent cultures of diploid human fibroblasts that have a well characterized mitogenic response to EGF. We developed a method of permeabilizing cells with digitonin or other agents that permitted the rapid labeling of cellular proteins with exogenously added [gamma-32P]ATP while allowing only about 25% of marker cytosolic enzymes to escape from the cells. When phosphatases were inhibited with zinc and vanadate, EGF induced up to 8-fold stimulation of the incorporation of radioactivity from [gamma-32P]ATP into a 35-kDa band on sodium dodecyl sulfate gels. Alkali treatment of gels showed that EGF stimulated the phosphorylation of bands with apparent molecular masses of 170, 45, 35, 26, 22, and 21 kDa. Phosphoamino acid analysis was performed on the 170- and 35-kDa bands and revealed that the EGF-stimulated phosphorylation was on tyrosyl residues. The 35-kDa band was resolved into four spots by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. The most acidic form was the most prominent and it was precipitated by an antiserum against a 35-kDa protein from A-431 cells; heretofore, this protein has only been reported to be phosphorylated in an EGF-dependent manner by A-431 membranes in vitro (Fava, R. A., and Cohen, S. (1984) J. Biol. Chem. 259, 2636-2645). This antiserum also precipitated a 35-kDa phospho-protein from extracts of intact [32P]orthophosphate-labeled fibroblasts which was phosphorylated on tyrosine in an EGF-dependent manner. None of the forms of the 35-kDa phosphoproteins labeled in permeabilized cells were immunologically related to the 34-kDa protein that is a substrate for the tyrosyl kinase encoded by Rous sarcoma virus. Other mitogens (serum, insulin, platelet-derived growth factor, and thrombin) did not detectably stimulate phosphorylation in permeabilized cells.