Endogenous basic fibroblast growth factor is essential for cyclin E-CDK2 activity in multiple external cytokine-induced proliferation of AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma cells: dual control of AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma cell growth and cyclin E-CDK2 activity by endogenous and external signals.

AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) cell, a key element for development of KS lesions, proliferates in response to external cytokines, such as oncostatin M, the soluble IL-6R-IL-6 complex, TNF-alpha, and IL-1beta. In addition, the KS cell-produced basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) was reported to function as an autocrine growth factor. However, little is known of the exact roles of these external growth factors and endogenous bFGF on proliferation of KS cells, and underlying intracellular events have remained to be defined. We obtained evidence that anti-bFGF Ab abolished growth of KS cells by preventing S phase entry of the cell cycle, even in the presence of the external growth factors. Blockade of the FGF action profoundly inhibited cyclin E expression and cyclin-dependent kinase-2 (CDK2) activity, but not D-type cyclin expression and CDK4 activity. Exogenously added acidic FGF (aFGF), which generated a rapid tyrosine phosphorylation of FGFR1 and FGFR2 on KS cells, reversed the inhibitory effects of anti-bFGF Ab. Thus, FGF actions are essential for cyclin E-CDK2 activity and S phase entry. We also observed that the presence of external growth factors markedly induced cyclin E-CDK2 activity and S phase entrance, while the addition of aFGF or bFGF alone was insufficient to induce these responses. All this evidence shows that integration of the activities of external growth factors and endogenous bFGF is required for full activation of cyclin E-CDK2 activity and KS cell proliferation.