Identification of a rapidly dephosphorylating 95-kDa protein as elongation factor 2 during 8-Br-cAMP treatment of N1E115 neuroblastoma cells.

Treatment of 8-Br-cAMP promotes neurite outgrowth and neuronal differentiation in N1E115 mouse neuroblastoma cells. Prior or simultaneous treatment of PMA blocks 8-Br-cAMP-mediated neurite outgrowth. Phosphorylation of cellular proteins during these treatments was examined in a permeabilized cell system. While PMA promotes phosphorylation of the heat-stable protein kinase C substrates MARCKS and neuromodulin, 8-Br-cAMP hastens the dephosphorylation of a protein of M(r)95k (p95). Extensively purified, N-terminal sequenced, and judged from its phosphorylation properties, p95 was identified as the eukaryotic elongation factor-2 (eEF-2), whose dephosphorylation has been reported to be related to an increase in protein synthesis. It is likely 8-Br-cAMP stimulates dephosphorylation of eEf-2, promotes protein synthesis that eventually leads to neuronal differentiation in N1E115 cells.