Depending on the tissue, progesterone is classified as a proliferative or a differentiative hormone. To explain this paradox, and to simplify analysis of its effects, we used a breast cancer cell line (T47D-YB) that constitutively expresses the B isoform of progesterone receptors. These cells are resistant to the proliferative effects of epidermal growth factor (EGF). Progesterone treatment accelerates T47D-YB cells through the first mitotic cell cycle, but arrests them in late G1 of the second cycle. This arrest is accompanied by decreased levels of cyclins D1, D3, and E, disappearance of cyclins A and B, and sequential induction of the cyclin-dependent kinase (cdk) inhibitors p21 and p27(Kip1). The retinoblastoma protein is hypophosphorylated and extensively down-regulated. The activity of the cell cycle-dependent protein kinase, cdk2, is regulated biphasically by progesterone: it increases initially, then decreases. This is consistent with the biphasic proliferative increase followed by arrest produced by one pulse of progesterone. A second treatment with progesterone cannot restart proliferation despite adequate levels of transcriptionally competent PR. Instead, a second progesterone dose delays the fall of p21 and enhances the rise of p27(Kip1), thereby intensifying the progesterone resistance in an autoinhibitory loop. However, during the progesterone-induced arrest, the cell cycling machinery is poised to restart. The first dose of progesterone increases the levels of EGF receptors and transiently sensitizes the cells to the proliferative effects of EGF. We conclude that progesterone is neither inherently proliferative nor antiproliferative, but that it is capable of stimulating or inhibiting cell growth depending on whether treatment is transient or continuous. We also suggest that the G1 arrest after progesterone treatment is accompanied by cellular changes that permit other, possibly tissue-specific, factors to influence the final proliferative or differentiative state.

Mammalian growth-associated Hi histone kinase, an enzyme whose activity is sharply elevated at mitosis, is similar to cdc2+ protein kinase from Schizosaccharomyces pombe and CDC28 protein kinase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae with respect to immunoreactivity, molecular size, and specificity for phosphorylation sites in Hi histone. Phosphorylation of specific growth-associated sites in HI histone is catalyzed by yeast cdc2+1CDC28 kinase, as shown by the in vitro thermal lability of this activity in extracts prepared from temperature-sensitive mutants. In addition, highly purified Xenopus maturation-promoting factor catalyzes phosphorylation of the same sites in Hi as do the mammalian and yeast kinases. The data indicate that growth-associated Hi kinase is encoded by a mammalian homolog of cdc2+ICDC28 protein kinase, which controls entry into mitosis in yeast and frog cells. Since Hi histone is known to be an in vivo substrate of the mammalian kinase, this suggests that phosphorylation of Hi histone or an Hi histone counterpart is an important component of the mechanism for entry of cells into mitosis.Among the protein phosphorylation reactions which occur in eucaryotic cells, one of the most prominent is the exten-

ABSTRACT

Okadaic acid (2 nM) inhibited by 80-90% the protein phosphatase activities in diluted extracts of rat liver, human fibroblasts, and Xenopus eggs acting on three substrates (high mobility group protein-I(Y), caldesmon and histone H1) phosphorylated by a cyclin-dependent protein kinase (CDK) suggesting that a type-2A phosphatase was responsible for dephosphorylating each protein. This result was confirmed by anion exchange chromatography of rat liver and Xenopus extracts, which demonstrated that the phosphatases acting on these substrates coeluted with the two major species of protein phosphatase 2A, termed PP2A1 and PP2A2. When matched for activity toward glycogen phosphorylase, PP2A1 was five- to sevenfold more active than PP2A2 and 35-fold to 70-fold more active than the free catalytic subunit (PP2Ac) toward the three CDK-labeled substrates. Protein phosphatases 1, 2B, and 2C accounted for a negligible proportion of the activity toward each substrate under the assay conditions examined. The results suggest that PP2A1 is the phosphatase that dephosphorylates a number of CDK substrates in vivo and indicate that the A and B subunits that are associated with PP2Ac in PP2A1 accelerate the dephosphorylation of CDK substrates, while suppressing the dephosphorylation of most other proteins. The possibility that PP2A1 activity is regulated during the cell cycle is discussed.