• Adrienne Halupa, Monica L Bailey, Kai Huang, Norman N Iscove, David E Levy, and Dwayne L Barber.
• Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
• Blood. 2005 Jan 15; 105 (2): 552-61.

AbstractErythropoietin (EPO) activates many distinct signal transduction cascades on engagement of its receptor. Deletion of the EPO, EPO receptor (EPO-R), or JAK2 genes in mice results in embryonic lethality due to a fatal anemia. EPO activates signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1), STAT3, and STAT5a/b transcription factors in erythroid cell lines. Studies have focused on STAT5 as the primary target of EPO-dependent JAK2 activation. However, STAT5a/b(-/-) mice are viable, displaying a nonfatal anemia during embryogenesis, and delayed differentiation in adult erythropoiesis. Importantly, EPO-R cytoplasmic tyrosines are dispensable for viability in vivo. Interestingly, no cytoplasmic tyrosines are required for phosphorylation of STAT1. This led us to examine whether STAT1-deficient mice have altered erythropoiesis. A shift in erythropoiesis was observed in STAT1(-/-) mice, with reduced bone marrow-derived erythroid colony-forming units (CFU-Es) and a compensatory increase in splenic burst-forming units (BFU-Es) and CFU-Es. Both types of splenic-derived cells displayed EPO hyperresponsiveness. A 1.6-fold reduction in total CFU-Es was observed in STAT1-deficient mice, whereas total BFU-Es were comparable. Flow cytometry of STAT1-deficient erythroid cells revealed a less differentiated phenotype, associated with increased apoptosis of early erythroblasts. STAT1-deficient erythroblasts from phenylhydrazine-primed mice displayed enhanced phosphorylation of STAT5a/b, Erk1/2, and protein kinase B (PKB)/Akt. These results illustrate that STAT1 plays an important role in the regulation of erythropoiesis.

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