Genetic evidence that a phorbol ester tumor promoter stimulates ornithine decarboxylase activity by a pathway that is independent of cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinases in CHO cells.

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Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) inductions by cholera toxin and by the phorbol ester tumor promoter, TPA, were compared in wild-type Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells and in mutant cells having altered cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase activity. The aim of these studies was to determine whether cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase is involved in these inductions. The time course and the magnitude of ODC inductions by either 100 ng/ml cholera toxin or 100 ng/ml TPA were similar in wild-type cells with a maximum at 3-4 hours after treatment and a return to unstimulated levels by 8 hours. Induction of ODC by cholera toxin was suppressed more than 80% in the four protein kinase mutants studied (10215, 10248, 10260, and 10265), strongly implicating a cyclic AMP-dependent kinase step in the mechanism of induction. Similar results were found with the cyclic AMP analog 8-Br-cyclic AMP and the phosphodiesterase inhibitor, methyl-isobutylxanthine. The induction of ODC by TPA, on the other hand, was only partially inhibited (approximately 50%) in three of four mutants. Lower ODC activity in two mutants stimulated by cholera toxin or TPA whose kinetics were studied in more detail could not be ascribed to a reduced affinity (Km) of ornithine for the enzyme, but appeared to be due to reduced catalytic activity (Vmax) in the extracts. These results suggest that the induction of ODC by TPA proceeds by a mechanism which is only partially dependent on an intact cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase activity.