Tyrosine phosphorylation in mouse mammary hyperplasias.

Tyrosine phosphorylation status was investigated during mouse mammary tumor development using non-tumorigenic and tumorigenic hyperplastic outgrowth lines. These outgrowth lines were compared with normal mammary glands from pregnant mice and with their corresponding tumors. The levels of total tyrosine phosphorylation in proteins of hyperplastic and neoplastic tissues were 4.7- and 3.4-fold higher than in the normal gland respectively. These results indicate that increases in tyrosine phosphorylation occur in the earliest stages of neoplastic development and are not restricted to neoplastic cells per se. These results led to the identification of the specific proteins showing high levels of tyrosine phosphorylation. Of the eight molecular weight bands of proteins exhibiting detectable levels of tyrosine phosphorylation, the only proteins exhibiting consistently different degrees of phosphorylation between hyperplasias and tumors were of approximately 34 kDa. In a series of six different hyperplasias with tumorigenic potentials ranging from 0 to 93%, the extent of tyrosine phosphorylation of 34 kDa proteins correlated inversely with tumorigenic potential. The levels of p34cdc2 and p33cdk2 proteins were examined, using antibodies specific for the cdc2 and cdk2 proteins. The amounts of p34cdc2 and p33cdk2 proteins were low in non-tumorigenic (TM3 and TM2L) compared to tumorigenic hyperplasias and correlated inversely with tyrosine phosphorylation of 34 kDa proteins during tumor development. Thus in the non-tumorigenic hyperplasias (TM2L and TM3) the majority of p34cdc2 was phosphorylated on tyrosine, in contrast to the p34cdc2 in tumorigenic (TM2H) hyperplasias and tumors. Two-dimensional PAGE analysis of mammary tumor samples with antibodies specific to cdc2, cdk2 and phosphorylated tyrosine revealed one p34cdc2 form, two p33cdk2 isoforms and two phosphotyrosine isoforms of about 33-34 kDa. The results suggest that the high levels of tyrosine phosphorylation in cdc2 and cdk2 reflect the low tumorigenic potential of a subset of mammary preneoplastic hyperplasias. This interpretation is in accord with current concepts on the role of tyrosine phosphorylation in the regulation of the cyclin-dependent kinases.