We have demonstrated previously that growth hormone (GH) activates focal adhesion kinase (FAK), and this activation results in the tyrosine phosphorylation of two FAK substrates, namely paxillin and tensin. We now show here in Chinese hamster ovary cells stably transfected with rat GH receptor cDNA that human (h)GH induces the formation of a large multiprotein signaling complex centered around another FAK-associated protein, p130Cas and the adaptor protein CrkII. hGH stimulates the tyrosine phosphorylation of both p130Cas and CrkII, their association, and the association of multiple other tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins to the complex.
Growth hormone (GH)1 is the major regulator of postnatal body growth (1). It possesses diverse and pleiotropic effects on the growth, differentiation, and metabolism of cells. GH is thought to initiate its biological actions, including induction of a number of RNA species in mammalian tissues by interaction with a specific membrane-bound receptor (2). The GH receptor is phosphorylated upon ligand stimulation presumably by the physical association of the nonreceptor tyrosine kinase JAK2 (3). The JAK kinases are linked to transcriptional regulation and JAK activation results in the phosphorylation, dimerization, and nuclear translocation of latent cytoplasmic STAT transcription factors (4). The activated STAT factors bind to their appropriate DNA-responsive elements to activate gene transcription (4). Other diverse actions of GH include the stimulation of chemotaxis and migration of monocytic cells (5). Concordantly, we have demonstrated that GH stimulates the re-organization of the actin cytoskeleton in cells with fibroblastic morphology (6) and reported that this re-organization of the actin cytoskeleton requires the activity of PI 3-kinase.Focal adhesion kinase (p125 FAK ) has been postulated to play a central role in the response of the cell to the extracellular matrix (for review, see Ref. 7) and in cell morphology and motility (for review, see Ref. 8). For example, overexpression of FAK stimulates cell migration (9) and both FAK-deficient endodermal and mesodermal cells migrate slower than their FAK replete counterparts (10, 11). The effect of FAK on the cytoskeleton is presumably mediated by the formation of a p130Cas (Crk-associated substrate)-CrkII complex (12) in association with c-Src (for review, see Ref. 13). We have reported recently that GH stimulates the tyrosine phosphorylation of FAK and two of its substrates, paxillin and tensin, and that FAK associates with JAK2 and requires the JAK2 binding site on the GH receptor for its phosphorylation (14). We demonstrate here that hGH also stimulates the tyrosine phosphorylation of both p130Cas and CrkII, their association, and the association of multiple other tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins to the complex including the c-Src and c-Fyn protein-tyrosine kinases, Nck, c-Cbl, tensin, paxillin, IRS-1, the p85 subunit of PI 3-kinase, SHC, Grb-2, Sos-1, and C3G. Finally we demonstrate that JNK/SAPK is activated in response to ...