Inositol lipid cycle and autonomous nuclear signalling

Abstract The involvement of phospholipids and in particular polyphosphoinositides in cellular signalling has been documented in detail in the last 20 years. In addition to the plasma membrane localization also the nucleus is shown to be a site for both synthesis and hydrolysis of the phosphorylated forms of phosphatidylinositol. Previous observations have established that the nucleus possesses a specific PLC for inositol lipids, i.e., the PLC β 1 isoform, which undergoes rapid and transient activation after IGF-I stimulation of quiescent Swiss 3T3 cells and is down-regulated after treatment of Friend erythroleukemia cells with DMSO. Here we have reviewed: (i) the potential of nuclear PLC β 1 to be a target for anti-cancer drug, (ii) the capability of this PLC isoform, when activated by IGF-I, to be a key signalling molecule in the onset of DNA synthesis, via DAG generation and PKC α translocation to the nucleus, (iii) the chromosome mapping of PLC β 1 gene. The differentiation program of Friend cells can be activated by other agents besides DMSO including tiazofurin, an anti-tumor drug, also capable of affecting the nuclear inositol lipid cycle. Tiazofurin induces a lowering of the activity of PLC β 1 due to down regulation of this isoform as revealed by both Western blotting and Northern blotting analyses. Using Swiss 3T3 cells stably transformed with an antisense PLC β 1 construct, the knock-out of the PLC β 1 gene induces both a loss of PLC β 1 expression, as determined by Western blots, and a loss of the mitogenic responsiveness to IGF-I. These events show a direct relationship between nuclear PLC β 1 evoked signals and IGF-I induced cell proliferation. Finally, the assignment of the PLC β 1 gene to the band q35–36 of rat chromosome 3 paves the way for further genetic studies given the fact that the region where PLC β 1 gene maps is a hot spot for genetic alterations in a number of experimentally induced rat tumors. Taken as a whole, these results assign a key role to the regulation of nuclear PLC activity and expression both in growth-factor activated mitogenesis and in in vitro erythroid differentiation.