Signaling via JAK tyrosine kinases: growth hormone receptor as a model system.

During the past 4 years, significant progress has been made in elucidating the earliest events following binding of ligands to members of the cytokine receptor superfamily. This is a rapidly growing family of receptors that currently includes receptors for growth hormone (GH); prolactin; erythropoeitin; granulocyte colony-stimulating factor; granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor; interleukin(IL)s 2-7, 9-13, 15; interferon (IFN)-alpha, beta, and gamma; thrombopoietin; leptin; oncostatin M; leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF); ciliary neurotrophic factor; and cardiotropin-1. Despite their diverse physiological effects in the body, ligands that bind to members of this family share multiple signaling pathways. An early and most likely initiating event for all of them is the activation of one or more members of the Janus (or JAK) family of tyrosine kinases. The activated JAK kinases, which form a complex with the cytokine receptor subunits, phosphorylate themselves as well as the receptor. These phosphorylated tyrosines form binding sites for various signaling molecules that are themselves thought to be phosphorylated by JAK kinases, including 1) signal transducers and activators of transcription (Stats), which regulate transcription; 2) She proteins that recruit Grb2-SOS complexes, thereby initiating the Ras-MAP kinase pathway; and 3) insulin receptor substrate (IRS) proteins that are thought to regulate metabolic events in the cell. Additional other signaling molecules have been implicated in signaling by some cytokines, including protein kinase C, SH2-B beta, and intracellular Ca. This review uses the GH receptor as a model system for studying cytokine signaling and summarizes some of the data used to establish JAK2 as a GH receptor-associated tyrosine kinase and to identify signaling molecules that lie downstream of JAK2. Since these pathways are shared by multiple cytokines, this review also discusses factors that might contribute to specificity of response to different cytokines.