Phosphotyrosine phosphatase activity prevents the detection of P210bcr/abl protein in mature cells in chronic myelogenous leukemia even by an immunoblotting technique.

P210bcr/abl protein with tyrosine protein kinase has been implicated in the proliferation and differentiation of chronic myelogenous leukemia cells. Using an immunoblotting technique with antiphosphotyrosine (anti-P-Tyr) antibodies, we examined whether P210bcr/abl protein was expressed in chronic phase cells in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). We could detect P210bcr/abl protein in blast cells regardless of myeloid or lymphoid lineage but not in chronic phase cells from patients. However, in a patient with both blast cells and chronic phase cells, we could identify the protein only after the enrichment of the blast crisis cells by Percoll gradient centrifugation. When K562 cells were mixed with mature granuloid cells, the P210bcr/abl in K562 cells detected by immunoblotting was decreased. Using phosphotyrosyl proteins in K562 cells as substrates, high phosphotyrosyl (P-Tyr) phosphatase activity was observed, not only in the lysate of chronic phase cells from CML patients but also in the lysate of neutrophils from normal subjects. These findings suggest the possibility that high P-Tyr phosphatase activity prevents the detection of P210bcr/abl in CML cells in the chronic phase. The activity may be characteristic of mature cells and may regulate cellular events through dephosphorylation of P210bcr/abl.