Signaling through the B cell antigen receptor (BCR) is negatively regulated by the SH2 domain-containing protein-tyrosine phosphatase SHP-1, which requires association with tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins for activation. Upon BCR ligation, SHP-1 has been shown to associate with the BCR, the cytoplasmic protein-tyrosine kinases Lyn and Syk, and the inhibitory co-receptors CD22 and CD72. How SHP-1 is activated by BCR ligation and regulates BCR signaling is, however, not fully understood. Here we demonstrate that, in the BCRexpressing myeloma line J558Lm3, CD72 expression reduces the BCR ligation-induced phosphorylation of the BCR component Ig␣/Ig and its cytoplasmic effectors Syk and SLP-65. Substrate phosphorylation was restored by expression of dominant negative mutants of SHP-1, whereas the SHP-1 mutants failed to enhance phosphorylation of the cellular substrates in the absence of CD72. This indicates that SHP-1 is efficiently activated by CD72 but not by other pathways in J558Lm3 cells and that inhibition of SHP-1 specifically activated by CD72 reverses CD72-induced dephosphorylation of cellular substrates in these cells. Taken together, BCR-induced SHP-1 activation is likely to require inhibitory co-receptors such as CD72, and SHP-1 appears to mediate the negative regulatory effect of CD72 on BCR signaling by dephosphorylating Ig␣/Ig and its downstream signaling molecules Syk and SLP-65.
Cross-linking of the B cell antigen receptor (BCR)1 activates protein-tyrosine kinases (PTKs) and induces phosphorylation of the immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs in the cytoplasmic tails of the Ig␣/Ig heterodimer, the signaling component of the BCR (1, 2 (2,3,5,8,9). The downstream signaling events appear to lead ultimately to proliferation, functional inactivation, or death of B cells. BCR signaling is regulated either positively by co-receptors such as CD19 and negatively by other co-receptors such as CD22 and the low affinity receptor for IgG (Fc␥RII) (10 -14). Fc␥RII modulates BCR signaling only when it interacts with the antigen-IgG complex and is involved in negative feedback regulation of IgG production. In contrast, both CD22 and CD72 appear to interact constitutively with BCR and regulate negatively both mitogen-activated protein kinase activation and Ca 2ϩ mobilization induced by BCR ligation (12,13,(15)(16)(17). By negatively regulating BCR signaling whenever BCR is ligated, both of these co-receptors are implicated in setting a signaling threshold for BCR ligation.The Src homology 2 (SH2) domain-containing protein-tyrosine phosphatase SHP-1 is involved in negative regulation of several receptors (18). For SHP-1 activation, its tandem SH2 domains need to be associated with a tyrosine-phosphorylated peptide (19). In B cells, CD22 has been shown to activate SHP-1. CD22 contains the conserved immunoreceptor tyrosinebased inhibition motifs (ITIMs) in the cytoplasmic regions (20). Upon tyrosine phosphorylation, the ITIMs of CD22 associate with and activate SHP-1. PIR-B and CD72 also contain ITIMs in...