Relationship between defective mouse mammary tumor virus envelope glycoprotein synthesis and GRP78 synthesis in glucocorticoid-treated mouse lymphoma cells. Evidence for translational control of GRP78 synthesis.

We have found that synthesis of the 78-kDa glucose-regulated protein, GRP78, was increased following glucocorticoid treatment of S49 and W7MG1 mouse lymphoma cell lines. These lines synthesized a 74-kDa mouse mammary tumor virus envelope glycoprotein precursor, Pr74, both constitutively and in response to glucocorticoid treatment. In these cell lines, nascent Pr74 was not processed normally but was retained within the endoplasmic reticulum where it was bound stably by GRP78. GRP78 synthesis was not increased following glucocorticoid treatment of the W7.2 mouse lymphoma cell line, which does not synthesize Pr74, suggesting that the increase in GRP78 synthesis following glucocorticoid treatment of S49 and W7MG1 cells was secondary to the glucocorticoid-induced increase in Pr74 synthesis. Consistent with this hypothesis, the glucocorticoid-induced increase in Pr74 synthesis preceded the increase in GRP78 synthesis. Also, there was a direct correlation between the level of GRP78 synthesis and the level of Pr74 synthesis among multiple subclones of the W7-ENV/N line. This line was derived from the W7.2 line by retroviral mediated transfer of a constitutively expressed sequence encoding a defective form of Pr74 that was bound stably by GRP78 within the endoplasmic reticulum. An elevation in the steady state level of GRP78 mRNA was not detected either in glucocorticoid-treated S49 cells and W7MG1 cells or in subclones of the W7-ENV/N line that have an increased level of GRP78 synthesis. Therefore, it appears that the binding of Pr74 to GRP78 induces an increase in GRP78 synthesis that is regulated at a translational level, rather than at a transcriptional level.