| First Author | Shui JW | Year | 2007 |
| Journal | Mol Cell Biol | Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 79-91 |
| PubMed ID | 17060460 | Mgi Jnum | J:117684 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3697256 | Doi | 10.1128/MCB.00799-06 |
| Citation | Shui JW, et al. (2007) Conditional knockout mice reveal an essential role of protein phosphatase 4 in thymocyte development and pre-T-cell receptor signaling. Mol Cell Biol 27(1):79-91 |
| abstractText | Okadaic acid-sensitive serine/threonine phosphatases have been shown to regulate interleukin-2 transcription and T-cell activation. Okadaic acid inhibits protein phosphatase 4 (PP4), a novel PP2A-related serine/threonine phosphatase, at a 50% inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) comparable to that for PP2A. This raises the possibility that some cellular functions of PP2A, determined in T cells by using okadaic acid, may in fact be those of PP4. To investigate the in vivo roles of PP4 in T cells, we generated conventional and T-cell-specific PP4 conditional knockout mice. We found that the ablation of PP4 led to the embryonic lethality of mice. PP4 gene deletion in the T-cell lineage resulted in aberrant thymocyte development, including T-cell arrest at the double-negative 3 stage (CD4(-) CD8(-) CD25(+) CD44(-)), abnormal thymocyte maturation, and lower efficacy of positive selection. PP4-deficient thymocytes showed decreased proliferation and enhanced apoptosis in vivo. Analysis of pre-T-cell receptor (pre-TCR) signaling further revealed impaired calcium flux and phospholipase C-gamma1-extracellular signal-regulated kinase activation in the absence of PP4. Anti-CD3 injection in PP4-deficient mice led to enhanced thymocyte apoptosis, accompanied by increased proapoptotic Bim but decreased antiapoptotic Bcl-xL protein levels. In the periphery, antigen-specific T-cell proliferation and T-cell-mediated immune responses in PP4-deficient mice were dramatically compromised. Thus, our results indicate that PP4 is essential for thymocyte development and pre-TCR signaling. |
