BCR/abl leads to the constitutive activation of Stat proteins, and shares an epitope with tyrosine phosphorylated Stats.

The mechanism by which BCR/abl leads to the transformation of hematopoietic cells is not understood. The introduction of BCR/abl into BaF3 cells, an IL-3-dependent pro-lymphocytic cell line, abrogates the requirement of IL-3 for growth. Given that IL-3 leads to the phosphorylation of Stat proteins, we tested the hypothesis that BCR/abl transformation of hematopoietic cells induces the phosphorylation of Stats. We found that BaF3 cells transformed by either the p190 or p210 forms of BCR/abl possess constitutively phosphorylated Stat1 and Stat5. Phosphorylation of Stat proteins was greater in cells transformed by p190 BCR/abl than in cells transformed by p210 BCR/abl, suggesting that the magnitude of phosphorylation of Stat proteins may play a role in the biological effects of BCR/abl. Expression of BCR/abl containing a mutation (Y177F) that prevents its interaction with GRB2 led to a decrease in the phosphorylation of Stat1 and Stat5. This suggested that GRB2, or its binding site on BCR/abl, may participate in the phosphorylation of Stat proteins. We also observed that the anti-phospho-Stat antibody directly recognized both the p190 and p210 forms of BCR/abl. This indicated that a tyrosine residue that becomes phosphorylated in BCR/abl may share homology with the tyrosine phosphorylation site of Stat1 and Stat5. These findings may have implications for the mechanisms by which BCR/abl interacts with signaling pathways to confer growth factor independence and induce transformation of hematopoietic cells.