Constitutively active STAT5 variants induce growth and survival of hematopoietic cells through a PI 3-kinase/Akt dependent pathway.

Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription (STATs) are important mediators of cytokine and growth factor-induced signal transduction. STAT5A and STAT5B have been shown to play a role in survival and proliferation of hematopoietic cells both in vitro and in vivo and to contribute to the growth and viability of cells transformed by the TEL-JAK2 oncoprotein. In this study, we investigated the molecular mechanisms by which constitutively active STAT5 proteins induce cell proliferation and survival of Ba/F3 cell lines expressing either dominant positive STAT5A or STAT5B variants or TEL-JAK2 or TEL-ABL fusion proteins.

Characterization of a novel ETS gene, TELB, encoding a protein structurally and functionally related to TEL.

The TEL/ETV6 gene is located at 12p13 and is frequently involved in chromosomal translocations in human malignancies usually resulting in the expression of fusion proteins between the amino terminal part of TEL, and either unrelated transcription factors or protein tyrosine kinases. We report here a novel gene named TELB which is located on human chromosomal band 6p21 and encodes a protein highly related to TEL. TELB is widely expressed in different tissues and, similarly to TEL encodes a sequence-specific transcriptional repressor.

TEL-JAK2 transgenic mice develop T-cell leukemia.

We previously reported a fusion between TEL and JAK2 in a t(9;12)(p24;p13) chromosomal translocation in childhood acute T-cell leukemia. This fusion gene encodes a TEL-JAK2 chimeric protein in which the 336 amino-terminal residues of TEL, including its specific self-association domain, are fused to the kinase domain of JAK2. TEL-JAK2 exhibits constitutive activation of its tyrosine kinase activity which, in turn, confers growth factor-independent proliferation to the interleukin-3-dependent Ba/F3 hematopoietic cell line.

Transforming properties of chimeric TEL-JAK proteins in Ba/F3 cells.

The involvement of the cytokine signaling pathway in oncogenesis has long been postulated. Recently, rearrangements of the gene encoding the tyrosine Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) have been reported in human leukemias indicating a direct JAK-signal transduction and activator of transcription (STAT)-mediated leukemic process. The leukemia-associated TEL-JAK2 fusion protein is formed by the oligomerization domain of the translocated ets leukemia (TEL) protein fused to the catalytic domain of JAK2.

Analysis of TEL proteins in human leukemias.

Chromosomal translocations involving the human 12p13 band frequently affect the TEL gene, usually resulting in gene fusion between TEL and genes encoding proteins of various types. The most frequent 12p13 translocation is the t(12;21)(p13;q22), which recombines TEL with the AML1 gene on chromosome 21 and is frequently associated with deletion of the untranslocated TEL allele. Using antisera against different parts of TEL and against the AML1 proteins, we undertook Western blot and immunofluorescence analyses of leukemic samples with and without 12p13 abnormalities.