Regulation of cAMP-responsive enhancer binding proteins during cell cycle progression in T lymphocytes stimulated by IL-2.

IL-2 stimulates the proliferative response of various lymphoid cells. Previous studies showed an increase in intracellular levels of cAMP concomitant with an increase in phosphorylation of discrete proteins by protein kinase A at late G1 phase in mitogen-stimulated lymphocytes. Thus, experiments were undertaken to study nuclear proteins that bind to the cAMP-responsive enhancer (CRE) in cloned T lymphocytes stimulated with IL-2. With the use of a 32P-labeled CRE consensus sequence in a DNA binding gel mobility shift assay, we showed that IL-2 stimulation resulted in the induction of two major DNA-protein complexes at late G1/S during the cell cycle. This binding was competed in a dose-dependent manner by a nonlabeled CRE oligonucleotide but was not competed by a nonlabeled AP-1 oligonucleotide. Rapamycin, a potent immunosuppressant, which arrests IL-2-stimulated T lymphocytes at G1/S, inhibited the IL-2-induced CRE binding activities concomitantly with inhibition of DNA synthesis. By using specific Abs in a gel mobility shift assay, we identified two known CREB/ATF transcription factors in the IL-2-induced CRE complexes: the CRE binding factor (CREB), and ATF1. The induction of CREB binding by IL-2 was not associated with an increase in its abundance but was associated with a major increase in CREB phosphorylation that was particularly prominent at late G1/S. However, we found that G1/S progression induced by IL-2 was not associated with an increase in the intracellular levels of cAMP. These results suggest that 1) the transcription factors CREB and ATF1 and possibly other CRE binding proteins may have an important role in the modulation of specific gene expression at G1/S during cell cycle progression induced by IL-2. 2) The involvement of these CRE binding transcription factors in IL-2-stimulated cells is regulated via a mechanism that is not cAMP dependent.