B-cell immune response to antigens is terminated or attenuated by surface receptors such as Fc␥RIIB1 and CD22 on B cells (5,11,34,48). These inhibitory receptors recruit specific intracellular signaling proteins, which play a key role in attenuating the early activation events initiated by cross-linking of the B-cell receptor (BCR). Fc␥RIIB1 is an important mediator of the attenuation of B-cell activation by antibody-antigen immune complexes in the later phases of the immune response (49). Coengagement of Fc␥RIIB1 with BCR results in a potent inhibitory signal that depends on the recruitment of Src homology 2-containing inositol phosphatase (SHIP). SHIP binds to the phosphorylated immunotyrosine-based motif (ITIM) in the cytoplasmic region of Fc␥RIIB1 (43, 44), and SHIP-mediated dephosphorylation of specific phosphoinositide products has been implicated in terminating the BCR-induced activation events (4, 14, 53).SHIP was initially characterized in hematopoietic cells as a 145-kDa phosphoprotein that coprecipitated with the adapter protein Shc upon stimulation of specific receptors (6-8, 37, 50, 52, 54). Molecular cloning of SHIP identified it as a 5Ј-inositolphosphatase (5Ј-IPase), based on homology with other 5Ј-IPases (9,13,29,36,45,57). SHIP specifically dephosphorylates phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate (PIP3), a major product of phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) enzymatic action, as well as inositoltetrakisphosphate (IP4), both in vitro (28,36) and in vivo (53). The requirement for SHIP in Fc␥RIIB1-mediated inhibition of BCR signaling has been well established (4,5,14,20,32,44,48,53). Recruitment of enzymatically active SHIP to the receptor complex results in potent inhibition of intracellular calcium flux (12,30,44), diminished activation of the serine-threonine kinase Akt (1, 3, 17, 27), inhibition of the Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway (56), and the regulation of apoptosis (2, 38, 47). Further evidence for a crucial role for SHIP in negative regulation of BCR signaling comes from studies with SHIP knockout mice as well as SHIP Ϫ/Ϫ Rag Ϫ/Ϫ chimeric mice, in which BCR-mediated responses are heightened and the Fc␥RIIB1-dependent inhibition of BCR responses is abolished (23,39).It is noteworthy that SHIP also negatively regulates histamine release in response to engagement of the immunoglobulin E (IgE) receptor and Steel factor (25,26,43), as well as the proliferative response to interleukin-3 and the macrophage colony-stimulating factor (36). Ex vivo studies with cells from SHIP-deficient mice have suggested that in the absence of SHIP, the myeloid progenitor cells hyperproliferate in response to cytokines and hematopoietic growth factors, with the dose-response curve being left-shifted (23). Taken together, these studies have clearly established a functional role for SHIP as a negative regulator of cytokine and antigen receptor signaling.The 145-kDa isoform of SHIP, the predominant form expressed in hematopoietic cells, is composed of an N-terminal Src homology 2 (SH2) domain, a central...