Transforming Properties of Chimeric TEL-JAK Proteins in Ba/F3 Cells

The involvement of the cytokine signaling pathway in oncogenesis has long been postulated. Recently, rearrangements of the gene encoding the tyrosine Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) have been reported in human leukemias indicating a direct JAK-signal transduction and activator of transcription (STAT)-mediated leukemic process. The leukemia-associated TEL-JAK2 fusion protein is formed by the oligomerization domain of the translocated ets leukemia (TEL) protein fused to the catalytic domain of JAK2. TEL-mediated oligomerization results in a constitutive tyrosine kinase activity that, in turn, is able to confer growth factor independence to the murine hematopoietic interleukin-3 (IL-3)-dependent Ba/F3 cell line. Results of the present study indicate that fusion proteins containing the oligomerization domain of TEL and the tyrosine kinase domains of Jak1, Jak2, JAK3, or TYK2 share similar properties and are able to efficiently substitute for the survival and mitogenic signals controlled by IL-3, without concomitant activation of the IL-3 receptor. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays demonstrated Stat5 as the only activated Stat factor in TEL-Jak2- and TEL-Jak1-expressing cells, whereas other Stats, namely Stat1 and Stat3, could be detected in TEL-JAK3-, TEL-TYK2-, and also in TEL-ABL-expressing Ba/F3 cells. High levels of expression of the Stat5-target genes pim-1, osm, and Cis were observed in all the cytokine-independent cell lines. Furthermore, the expression of a dominant negative form of Stat5A markedly interfered with the growth factor independence process mediated by TEL-Jak2 in Ba/F3 cells. Because the BCR-ABL and TEL-PDGFbetaR oncoproteins also activate Stat5, activation of this factor should be a crucial step in activated tyrosine kinase-mediated leukemogenesis. (Blood. 2000;95:2076-2083)