RECONSTITUTED HUMAN GRANULOCYTE-MACROPHAGE COLONY-STIMULATING FACTOR RECEPTOR TRANSDUCES GROWTH-PROMOTING SIGNALS IN MOUSE NIH 3T3 CELLS - COMPARISON WITH SIGNALING IN BA/F3 PRO-B CELLS

Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) plays a critical role in growth and differentiation of myeloid cells. We previously reconstituted high-affinity human GM-CSF receptor (hGM-CSFR) in a pro-B cell line, BA/F3, by cotransfecting alpha- and beta-chain cDNA clones and showed that the reconstituted receptor could transduce growth-promoting signals. The high-affinity hGM-CSFR was also reconstituted in mouse NIH 3T3 cells, but its ability to transduce signa[s in fibroblasts remained undetermined. In the present study, we further characterized signal transduction by the reconstituted hGM-CSFR in both NIH 3T3 cells and BA/F3 cells. We found that the reconstituted hGM-CSFR transduces signals in NIH 3T3 fibroblasts and BA/F3 cells in response to hGM-CSF to activate transcription of the c-fos, c-jun, and c-myc proto-oncogenes. hGM-CSF also induces protein tyrosine phosphorylation and DNA synthesis in both cell types. These results indicated that hGM-CSFR is functional in fibroblasts, that signal transduction via hGM-CSFR in fibroblasts involves tyrosine kinase(s), and that association of hGM-CSFR with a factor(s) specific to hematopoietic cell lineage is not essential to transduce growth-promoting signals.