Regulation of protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) through reversible oxidation of the active site cysteine is emerging as a general, yet poorly characterized, mechanism for control of the activity of this important group of enzymes. This regulatory mechanism was initially described after in vitro treatment of PTPs with oxidizing agents. However, accumulating evidence has substantiated the notion that this mechanism is also operating in vivo, e.g., in association with the transient increase in H(2)O(2) production which occurs after activation of receptor tyrosine kinases. A novel generic antibody-based method for monitoring of PTP oxidation is described. The sensitivity of this strategy has been validated by the demonstration of oxidation of endogenously expressed PTPs after stimulation of cells with growth factors. The method was also instrumental in providing the first evidence for intrinsic differences between PTP domains with regard to sensitivity to oxidation.

Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) constitute a large enzyme family with important biological functions. Inhibition of PTP activity through reversible oxidation of the active-site cysteine residue is emerging as a general, yet poorly characterized, regulatory mechanism. In this study, we describe a generic antibody-based method for detection of oxidation-inactivated PTPs. Previous observations of oxidation of receptor-like PTP (RPTP) α after treatment of cells with H 2 O 2 were confirmed. Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-induced oxidation of endogenous SHP-2, sensitive to treatment with the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor LY294002, was demonstrated. Furthermore, oxidation of RPTPα was shown after UV-irradiation. Interestingly, the catalytically inactive second PTP domain of RPTPα demonstrated higher susceptibility to oxidation. The experiments thus demonstrate previously unrecognized intrinsic differences between PTP domains to susceptibility to oxidation and suggest mechanisms for regulation of RPTPs with tandem PTP domains. The antibody strategy for detection of reversible oxidation is likely to facilitate further studies on regulation of PTPs and might be applicable to analysis of redox regulation of other enzyme families with active-site cysteine residues.

The,platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) beta receptor mediates mitogenic and chemotactic signals. Like other tyrosine kinase receptors, the PDGF beta receptor is negatively regulated by protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs). To explore whether T-cell PTP (TC-PTP) negatively regulates the PDGF beta receptor, we compared PDGF beta receptor tyrosine phosphorylation in wild-type and TC-PTP knockout (ko) mouse embryos. PDGF beta receptors were hyperphosphorylated in TC-PTP ko embryos. Fivefold-higher ligand-induced receptor phosphorylation was observed in TC-PTP ko mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) as well. Reexpression of TC-PTP partly abolished this difference. As determined with site-specific phosphotyrosine antibodies, the extent of hyperphosphorylation varied among different autophosphorylation sites. The phospholipase Cgamma1 binding site Y1021, previously implicated in chemotaxis, displayed the largest increase in phosphorylation. The increase in Y1021 phosphorylation was accompanied by increased phospholipase Cgamma1 activity and migratory hyperresponsiveness to PDGF. PDGF beta receptor tyrosine phosphorylation in PTP-1B ko MEFs but not in PTPepsilon ko MEFs was also higher than that in control cells. This increase occurred with a site distribution different from that seen after TC-PTP depletion. PDGF-induced migration was not increased in PTP-1B ko cells. In summary, our findings identify TC-PTP as a previously unrecognized negative regulator of PDGF beta receptor signaling and support the general notion that PTPs display site selectivity in their action on tyrosine kinase receptors.

Site-selective dephosphorylation of receptor tyrosine kinases contributes to receptor regulation. The receptor-like protein tyrosine phosphatase DEP-1 site-selectively dephosphorylates the PDGF beta-receptor. DEP-1 dephosphorylation of original and chimeric phospho-peptides spanning the preferred pY1021 and the less preferred pY857 and pY562 sites was analyzed. Double substitutions of basic residues at -4 and +3 of pY857 and pY562 peptides improved affinity. Substitutions of single amino acids indicated preference for an acidic residue at position -1 and a preference against a basic residue at position +3. DEP-1 site-selective dephosphorylation of PDGF beta-receptor is thus determined by the primary sequence surrounding phosphorylation sites and involves interactions with residues spanning at least between positions -1 and +3.

Ligand binding to the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) β-receptor leads to increased receptor tyrosine phosphorylation as a consequence of dimerization-induced activation of the intrinsic receptor tyrosine kinase activity. In this study we asked whether ligand-stimulated PDGF β-receptor tyrosine phosphorylation, to some extent, also involved reduced susceptibility to tyrosine dephosphorylation. To investigate this possibility we compared the sensitivity of ligand-stimulated and non-stimulated forms of tyrosine-phosphorylated PDGF β-receptors to dephosphorylation using various preparations containing protein-tyrosine phosphatase activity. Ligand-stimulated or unstimulated tyrosine-phosphorylated receptors were obtained after incubation of cells with pervanadate only or pervanadate, together with PDGF-BB, respectively. Dephosphorylation of receptors immobilized on wheat germ agglutinin-Sepharose, as well as of receptors in intact cell membranes, was investigated under conditions when rephosphorylation did not occur. As compared with unstimulated receptors the ligand-stimulated PDGF β-receptors showed about 10-fold reduced sensitivity to dephosphorylation by cell membranes, a recombinant form of the catalytic domain of density-enhanced phosphatase-1, or recombinant protein-tyrosine phosphatase 1B. We conclude that ligand-stimulated forms of the PDGF β-receptor display a reduced susceptibility to dephosphorylation. Our findings suggest a novel mechanism whereby ligand stimulation of PDGF β-receptor, and possibly other tyrosine kinase receptors, leads to a net increase in receptor tyrosine phosphorylation.

Ligand stimulation of PDGF β-receptors leads to autophosphorylation of the regulatory tyrosine 857 and of tyrosine residues that in their phosphorylated form serve as docking sites for Src homology 2 domain-containing proteins. Regulation of the PDGF β-receptor by protein-tyrosine phosphatases is poorly understood. We have investigated PDGF β-receptor dephosphorylation by receptor-like protein-tyrosine phosphatase DEP-1 using a cell line with inducible DEP-1 expression and by characterizing in vitrodephosphorylation of the PDGF β-receptor and of receptor-derived phosphopeptides by DEP-1. After DEP-1 induction PDGF β-receptor·DEP-1 complexes and reduced receptor tyrosine phosphorylation were observed. Phosphopeptide analysis of the PDGF β-receptors from DEP-1-expressing cells and of the receptors dephosphorylated in vitro by DEP-1 demonstrated that dephosphorylation of autophosphorylation sites of the receptor differed and revealed that the regulatory Tyr(P)857 was not a preferred site for DEP-1 dephosphorylation. When dephosphorylation of synthetic receptor-derived peptides was analyzed, the selectivity was reproduced, indicating that amino acid sequence surrounding the phosphorylation sites is the major determinant of selectivity. This notion is supported by the observation that the poorly dephosphorylated Tyr(P)562 and Tyr(P)857, in contrast to other analyzed phosphorylation sites, are surrounded by basic amino acid residues at positions −4 and +3 relative to the tyrosine residue. Our study demonstrates that DEP-1 dephosphorylation of the PDGF β-receptor is site-selective and may lead to modulation, rather than general attenuation, of signaling.

Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) is a dimeric protein that exerts its effects through tyrosine Kinase alpha- and beta-receptors. The extracellular part of each receptor is composed of five Ig-like domains. Recombinant forms of a-receptor domains 1-4 (alpha RD1-4), 1-3 (alpha RD1-3), and 1 and 2 (alpha RD1-2) were prepared after expression in Chinese hamster ovary cells and were used to study the assembly of soluble ligand-receptor complexes. When incubated with micromolar concentrations of PDGF, both alpha RD1-3 and alpha RD1-4 formed complexes of 1:2 molar composition, i.e. one dimeric PDGF molecule bound two soluble receptors, alpha RD1-3, in contrast to alpha RD1-4, formed detectable 1:1 complexes under conditions of ligand excess. alpha RD1-4 displayed an increased ability to form 1:2 complexes as compared with alpha RD1-3 under conditions of limiting concentrations of ligand. We thus conclude that Ig-like domain 4-mediated receptor-receptor interactions contribute to 1:2 PDGF.alpha RD1-4 complex formation. Since alpha RD1-4 and alpha RD1-3 were equipotent in blocking binding of subnanomolar concentrations of PDGF to cell-surface receptors, we also conclude that this effect is predominantly achieved through formation of Ig-like domain 4-independent 1:1 ligand-receptor complexes. Finally, since alpha RD1-2 bound PDGF-BB with high affinity, whereas PDGF-AA was bound only with low affinity, we conclude that Ig-like domain 3 of the PDGF alpha-receptor contains epitopes of particular importance for PDGF-AA binding and that most of the PDGF-BB-binding epitopes reside in Ig-like domains 1 and 2.