Regulation of ICAM-1 mRNA stability by cycloheximide: role of serine/threonine phosphorylation and protein synthesis.

Cycloheximide is a protein synthesis inhibitor that superinduces the expression of many genes by preventing the degradation of otherwise labile mRNAs. In some genes this depends on the presence of the AUUUA destabilizing multimers in the 3'UTR. We examined the effect of cycloheximide on the murine intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1; CD54) gene expression in several cell lines including A20 (B cell lymphoma), T28 (T cell hybridoma), P388D1 (monocytic cell), SVEC4-10 (lymphoid endothelial cell), and ICAM-1-transfected murine fibroblast L cells. Cycloheximide was indeed able to dramatically increase the accumulation of ICAM-1 mRNA in all the cell lines examined except T28, and this seemed to be due to the stabilization of the ICAM-1 mRNA as indicated by the half-life analysis. To determine whether this effect is dependent on the 3'UTR containing the AUUUA sequences, L cells were transfected with either the full-length ICAM-1 cDNA or a truncated form lacking the AUUUA sequences in the 3'UTR (ICAM-1Delta3). There was no discernible difference in the effect of cycloheximide on ICAM-1 mRNA accumulation or half-life between the two types of transfected cells. The effect of cycloheximide on ICAM-1 mRNA was markedly suppressed by serine/threonine (ser/thr) kinase inhibitors, H-7 and staurosporine, whereas the ser/thr phosphatase inhibitor, okadaic acid, augmented the cycloheximide effect. Inhibitors of protein tyrosine kinases and phosphatases had no effect. Unexpectedly, the level of cell surface ICAM-1 as well as de novo synthesis of ICAM-1 in SVEC4-10 and the ICAM-1-transfected L cells were also upregulated by cycloheximide, whereas the overall protein synthesis in these cells was profoundly inhibited, suggesting that ICAM-1 protein synthesis in these cells escapes the translational inhibition by cycloheximide. These results suggest that the stabilization of ICAM-1 mRNA by cycloheximide is independent of its translational inhibition and that ser/thr phosphorylation of unidentified protein(s) seems to play a crucial role in this effect.