Role of tyrosine kinase and phosphotyrosine phosphatase in growth of the intestinal crypt cell (IEC-6) line.

The roles of gastrin and sodium vanadate in proliferation were examined in cultured IEC-6 cells that are mitotically active and derived originally from jejunal crypts of the rat intestine. Incubation of the cells in the presence of gastrin at a concentration of 250 ng/ml or of sodium vanadate at a concentration of 0.2 mM leads to a 60% increase in cell growth in 24 hr. The stimulated growth in both cases was inhibited by genistein, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Incubation in the presence of gastrin and sodium vanadate together produced a small, albeit significant, potentiation of growth of the cells. Gastrin as well as sodium vanadate also promoted the phosphorylation on tyrosine of a similar group of proteins with molecular masses of 42, 45, 52, 60, 78, and 120 kDa. The phosphorylations were rapidly occurring as early as 5 min and lasted for only 15 min. Several proteins were detected in normal IEC-6 cells, including GTPase activating protein, raf1 kinase, phospholipase C gamma-1, and phosphoinositide 3-kinase. The results suggest that gastrin and sodium vanadate induce growth of IEC-6 cells by stimulation of tyrosine kinase and/or inhibition of tyrosine phosphatase. The gastrin and sodium vanadate effects also involve the phosphorylation of a number of proteins, the identities of which are not known at present but may include some of the kinases that are frequently associated with cell growth, such as mitogen-activated protein kinase, raf1 kinase, phosphoinositide 3-kinase, and others.