Endocrinology, Vol 137, 4536-4541, Copyright © 1996 by Endocrine Society

ARTICLES

The cellular protooncogenes c-fos and egr-1 are regulated by prostacyclin in rodent osteoblasts and fibroblasts

H Glantschnig, F Varga and K Klaushofer
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Osteology, Fourth Medical Department, Hanusch Hospital, Vienna, Austria.

PGs are local regulators of various cellular functions. They exert their effects via specific PG receptor subtypes. Induction of c-fos gene expression has been described for arachidonic acid and its metabolite PGE2. We demonstrate that another very short half-lifed prostanoid metabolite, namely prostacyclin (PGI2), is a regulator of immediate-early genes. PGI2 transiently induced the growth-associated immediate-early genes c-fos and egr-1 in osteoblastic as well as fibroblastic cell lines. Furthermore, we showed that PGI2 dose dependently stimulated new DNA synthesis in the osteoblastic cell line MC3T3-E1. Although PGI2 is known to be a potent inducer of cyclooxygenases, we showed that this pathway is not necessary for protooncogene induction by PGI2. Our data indicate a direct effect of PGI2 on immediate-early gene expression, which does not depend on the synthesis of other prostanoids. Intracellular signal transduction mechanisms were studied with the protein kinase inhibitor H-7, a potent inhibitor of PGI2-induced c-fos expression. Experiments with phorbol esters revealed that protein kinase C activity is not obligatory for the effect of PGI2 on c-fos expression. We conclude from these results that PGI2, a rapidly inactivated prostanoid, has a major impact on cellular oncogene expression and growth in mesenchymally derived cells.

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