Altered responsiveness to chemokines due to targeted disruption of SHIP.

SHIP has been implicated in negative signaling in a number of hematopoietic cell types and is postulated to downregulate phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase- (PI-3K-) initiated events in diverse receptor signaling pathways. Because PI-3K is implicated in chemokine signaling, we investigated whether SHIP plays any role in cellular responses to chemokines. We found that a number of immature and mature hematopoietic cells from SHIP-deficient mice manifested enhanced directional migration (chemotaxis) in response to the chemokines stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) and B-lymphocyte chemoattractant (BLC). SHIP(-/-) cells were also more active in calcium influx and actin polymerization in response to SDF-1. However, colony formation by SHIP-deficient hematopoietic progenitor cell (HPCs) was not inhibited by 13 myelosuppressive chemokines that normally inhibit proliferation of HPCs. These altered biologic activities of chemokines on SHIP-deficient cells are not caused by simple modulation of chemokine receptor expression in SHIP-deficient mice, implicating SHIP in the modulation of chemokine-induced signaling and downstream effects.