Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is activated by the IL-6 family of cytokines and growth factors. STAT3 requires phosphorylation on Ser-727, in addition to tyrosine phosphorylation on Tyr-705, to be transcriptionally active. In IL-6 signaling, the two major pathways that derive from the YXXQ and the YSTV motifs of gp130 cause Ser-727 phosphorylation. Here, we show that TGF-␤-activated kinase 1 (TAK1) interacts with STAT3, that the TAK1-Nemo-like kinase (NLK) pathway is efficiently activated by IL-6 through the YXXQ motif, and that this is the YXXQ-mediated H7-sensitive pathway that leads to STAT3 Ser-727 phosphorylation. Because NLK was recently shown to interact with STAT3, we explored the role of STAT3 in activating this pathway. Depletion of STAT3 diminished the IL-6-induced NLK activation by >80% without inhibiting IL-6-induced TAK1 activation or its nuclear entry. We found that STAT3 functioned as a scaffold for TAK1 and NLK in vivo through a region in its carboxyl terminus. Furthermore, the expression of the STAT3 534 -770 region in the nuclei of STAT3-knockdown cells enhanced the IL-6-induced NLK activation in a dose-dependent manner but not the TGF␤-induced NLK activation. TGF␤ did not cause STAT3 Ser-727 phosphorylation, even when the carboxyl region of STAT3 was expressed in the nuclei. Together, these results indicate that STAT3 enhances the efficiency of its own Ser-727 phosphorylation by acting as a scaffold for the TAK1-NLK kinases, specifically in the YXXQ motif-derived pathway.gp130 ͉ YXXQ motif ͉ signaling specificity T he signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) family plays pivotal roles in a variety of systems and in development, in response to cytokines and growth factors. STAT family members are activated in the cytoplasm by tyrosine phosphorylation, form dimers, and enter the nucleus, where they act as DNA-binding transcription factors (1). Of the seven known STATs, STAT1, 3, 5A, 5B, and 6 are phosphorylated at one or two serine residues in their carboxyl-terminal transactivation domain (1, 2) and at a critical tyrosine. The serine phosphorylation enhances the transcriptional activity in the case of STAT1 (3), STAT3 (3, 4), and STAT6 (5). STAT3 can be activated by a variety of cytokines, including the IL-6 family, by using gp130 as a common receptor subunit (6), Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and erythropoietin, and growth factors, EGF, platelet-derived growth factor, and hepatocyte growth factor, and cytoplasmic tyrosine kinases, including Src and v-Eyk (reviewed in ref. 7). IL-6 uses STAT3 in its major signaling pathway and concomitantly activates the Ras͞Raf͞ ERK and PI3-kinase pathways (7). IL-6, therefore, activates multiple genes, including acute-phase reactants, and the junB, tis11, stat3, c-myc, and c-fos genes, mostly through STAT3 (8-14). In the IL-6 receptor system, the tyrosine-phosphorylated YXXQ motif of gp130 is critical for recruiting STAT3 for subsequent phosphorylation at Tyr-705 by the associated Jak kinases (15). I...

In a multicenter, open-label, study, 284 living-donor liver transplant patients were randomized at 30 ± 5 days posttransplant to start everolimus+reduced tacrolimus (EVR+rTAC) or continue standard tacrolimus (TAC Control). EVR+rTAC was non-inferior to TAC Control for the primary efficacy endpoint of treated BPAR, graft loss or death at 12 months posttransplant: difference -0.7% (90% CI -5.2%, 3.7%); P < .001 for non-inferiority. Treated BPAR occurred in 2.2% and 3.6% of patients, respectively. The key secondary endpoint, change in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) from randomization to month 12, achieved non-inferiority (P < .001 for non-inferiority), but not superiority and was similar between groups overall (mean -8.0 vs. -12.1 mL/min/1.73 m , P = .108), and in patients continuing randomized treatment (-8.0 vs. -13.3 mL/min/1.73 m , P = .046). In the EVR+rTAC and TAC control groups, study drug was discontinued in 15.5% and 17.6% of patients, adverse events with suspected relation to study drug occurred in 57.0% and 40.4%, and proteinuria ≥1 g/24 h in 9.3% and 0%, respectively. Everolimus did not negatively affect liver regeneration. At 12 months, hepatocellular recurrence was only seen in the standard TAC-treated patients (5/62; 8.1%). In conclusion, early introduction of EVR+rTAC was non-inferior to standard tacrolimus in terms of efficacy and renal function at 12 months, with hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence only in TAC Control patients. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01888432.

No abstract

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text.