Richard A. Luben

Bone-resorbing activity in supernatants from lymphoid cell lines.

Abstract To study the pathogenesis of osteolytic lesions and hypercalcemia in neoplastic disease, supernatant fluids of cultured lymphoid cell lines were tested for their ability to stimulate bone resorption in vitro. Lines from patients with myeloma, Burkitts lymphoma, and malignant lymphoma secreted a potent bone-resorbing material. Four lines from normal subjects or patients with other neoplasms did not have this activity. The lymphoid cell-line agent (or agents) could be distinguished from parathyroid hormone, prostaglandin E2 and vitamin-D-like sterols by dose-response curves, Sephadex G-100 chromatography, heat inactivation, dialysis and ultrafiltration, extraction with lipid solvents and immunoassays, but could not be distinguished from the osteoclast-activating factor secreted by human leukocytes. Osteolytic lesions in patients with lymphocytic neoplasms may be due to excessive secretion of stimulators of osteoclast-mediated bone resorption. (N Engl J Med 290:867–871, 1974)

Effect of osteoclast activating factor from human leukocytes on bone metabolism.

The effects of osteoclast activating factor (OAF) released by normal human peripheral blood leukocytes cultured with phytohemagglutinin have been examined in organ culture. Like parathyroid hormone (PTH), OAF causes a rapid increased in the release of previously incorporated 45Ca from fetal rat bone after brief or continuous exposure; the bones also lose stable calcium and collagen content. The resorption response to OAF also resembles that of PTH in having a steep dose response curve and being only transiently inhibited by calcitonin and partially inhibited by increasing medium phosphate concentration. OAF-stimulated resorption was inhibited more effectively by cortisol than was PTH stimulation. The response to maximally effective doses of OAF was not enhanced by PTH or prostaglandin E2, but submaximal doses gave additive effects. Both OAF and PTH inhibit collagen synthesis in fetal rat calvaria at the concentrations that stimulate bone resorption.

In vitro immunization as an adjunct to the production of hybridomas producing antibodies against the lymphokine osteoclast activating factor

Abstract A system is described for production of hybridomas which secrete antibodies against the lymphokine osteoclast activating factor (OAF). The system consists of immunization of mouse spleen cells in vitro with purified or semipurified human OAF, followed by hybridization of the immunized cells with a mouse plasmacytoma cell line. The system for in vitro immunization includes conditioned medium from mouse thymus cells, which was shown to be a substantial aid to production of antigen-specific hybridomas, although the specific factors responsible for this enhancement were not determined. Using the system described, we were able to produce hybridomas with the desired antibody specificity using nanogram quantities of OAF as antigen. This system should allow greater flexibility and speed for the hybridoma technique, especially when applied to antigens which are scarce or impure, such as lymphokines.

Partial Purification of Osteoclast-Activating Factor from Phytohemagglutinin-Stimulated Human Leukocytes

Osteoclast-activating factor (OAF) is a soluble mediator found in supernates of human peripheral leukocytes which have been cultured with antigens or phytomitogens. OAF is a potent stimulator of osteoclastic resorption of fetal bone in organ culture. The present studies were designed to characterize OAF chemically. Bone resorbing activity from supernates of leukocytes cultured without added plasma was not lost on dialysis using a membrane with a molecular weight cutoff of 3,500, but was lost when heated to 60 degrees C for 30 min. The activity was lost after treatment with trypsin or pronase but not after treatment with ribonuclease or neuraminidase. Papain, which inactivated parathyroid hormone at a concentration of 25 mug/ml, did not inactivate OAF at 250 mug/ml. OAF did not react with an antibody to bovine parathyroid hormone which cross-reacts with human parathyroid hormone. OAF was also distinguished from active metabolites of vitamin D and from prostaglandin by extraction procedures and immunoassay for prostaglandin E(2). When the medium from activated leukocytes cultured with autologous plasma was fractionated by gel filtration on Sephadex, bone resorbing activity eluated both with plasma proteins and in lower molecular weight fractions. However, when medium from leukocytes cultured without added plasma was chromatographed, all the OAF activity was eluted in a sharp low molecular weight peak located between chymotrypsinogen (25,000 molecular weight) and ribonuclease A (13,700 molecular weight). This peak contained about 4% of the total protein originally present in the supernate. Its activity was destroyed by overnight incubation at 37 degrees C at pH 6 or 8, but not at pH 7.2. After incubation at 4 degrees C, the activity was lost at pH 3 or 10, but not at pH 4-9. The active fraction from Sephadex G-100 was therefore chromatographed at pH 7.2 on DEAE cellulose and carboxymethyl cellulose. The active material was not adsorbed; however, about sevenfold further purification was achieved by removal of contaminants. The material obtained after sequential Sephadex, DEAE and, carboxymethyl cellulose chromatography stimulated resorption of fetal rat bone in culture at concentrations of 0.75-3 mug protein/ml, indicating that this preparation of OAF was nearly as potent as bovine parathyroid hormone in this system.

A Noninvasive Functional Lesion of the Hypothalamo-Pituitary Axis for the Study of Growth Hormone-Releasing Factor

Rats were passively immunized with an antiserum against somatostatin and a monoclonal antibody against rat hypothalamic growth hormone-releasing factor (rGRF-mAb) which does not recognize the biologically active 1-40 amino acid fragment of hpGRF-44 (hpGRF-40). Using this paradigm we have observed that the pituitary possesses a resilient capacity to release growth hormone (GH) following repeated injections of hpGRF-40 and that this response follows a dose-dependent relationship.

Dissociation of Janus Kinase 2 and Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 5 Activation after Treatment of Nb2 Cells with a Molecular Mimic of Phosphorylated Prolactin1

We have previously demonstrated that phosphorylated PRL acts as an antagonist to the Nb2 proliferative activities of unmodified PRL. A molecular mimic of phosphorylated PRL, which substitutes an aspartate residue for the normally phosphorylated serine (serine 179), has the same properties. Because it takes less than one fourth the amount of phosphorylated hormone, or the aspartate mutant, to block the proliferative activity of unmodified hormone, we have investigated whether the high potency of the aspartate mutant is achieved by the production of an alternate and interfering intracellular signal cascade. Nb2 cells were exposed to 5 or 500 ng/ml human NIDDK PRL, wild-type recombinant PRL (unmodified PRL), or aspartate mutant PRL (pseudophosphorylated PRL) for 1, 5, or 10 min at 37 C. At 5 ng/ml and 10 min, wild-type recombinant PRL showed greater activation of Janus kinase 2 (JAK 2) than the NIDDK preparation. This is consistent with a previous report of higher proliferative activity for the wild-type hor...

Purification of a lymphokine: Osteoclast activating factor from human tonsil lymphocytes

Abstract Osteoclast activating factor is a lymphokine produced by mitogen-stimulated human lymphocytes. The current studies describe purification to essential homogeneity of the major form of osteoclast activating factor present in supernatants of phytohemagglutinin stimulated lymphocyte cultures. Preliminary chemical and biological characterization of the purified material was carried out. The active factor is a peptide which migrates in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis as an α-2 fraction in native gels and as a 9,000-dalton species in sodium dodecyl sulfate-urea gels. The purified fraction stimulates bone resorption in vitro at doses between 0.1 and 500 ng/ml, with half-maximal stimulation at approximately 1 ng/ml.

Effects of osteoclast activating factor from human lymphocytes on cyclic AMP concentrations in isolated mouse bone and bone cells.

SummaryOsteoclast activating factor (OAF) is a lymphokine which may participate in the pathologic destruction of bone observed in a number of disorders. In the current studies, we investigated the action of OAF on cAMP accumulation by bones and isolated bone cells in culture. OAF was shown to stimulate accumulation of cAMP in mouse cranial bones at doses between 1 and 1000 ng/ml. Stimulation of bone resorption was observed in bones treated with the same doses of OAF. In order to investigate the cell types responsible for cAMP responses to OAF, we isolated bone cells and grew them in monolayer culture. The cells were isolated by a variety of techniques which separate bone cells into two types of parathyroid hormone (PTH)-responsive populations: (a) cells derived from the periosteal regions of the bone, which also respond to calcitonin with increases in cAMP; and (b) cells derived from the matrix, which do not respond to calcitonin. OAF caused elevation of cAMP levels in both the periosteum-derived cells and the matrix-derived cells. The magnitudes and time courses of OAF effects in these populations resembled the effects previously reported for PTH in the same populations. OAF stimulated adenyl cyclase in both types of cell populations, but did not produce significant changes in cAMP phosphodiesterase activity. OAF differed from PTH in that its effects on cAMP accumulation decreased sharply at supramaximal doses in both bone and isolated cells, especially in the matrix-derived populations. Bone resorption did not decrease as markedly as did cAMP accumulation at high doses of OAF, suggesting that cAMP accumulation and resorption could be dissociated under some conditions. These results indicate that OAF has effects on cAMP production in the same cell populations as PTH, and suggest that OAF could modify not only resorption but also formation of bone in vivo. OAF may exert its effects on bone by means of cAMP-dependent mechanisms, but more data will be necessary to establish this unequivocally. The observed differences between OAF and PTH may be of relevance in the mechanism and treatment of pathologic bone destruction in vivo.

Prolactin Blocks Nuclear Translocation of VDR by Regulating Its Interaction with BRCA1 in Osteosarcoma Cells

Based on their content of prolactin receptors, osteosarcoma cells were predicted to be responsive to prolactin (PRL), but whether PRL would be beneficial or contribute to pathogenesis was unclear. 1,25(OH)(2) vitamin D(3) [1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3)] has antiproliferative effects on osteosarcoma cells, and a complex interregulatory situation exists between PRL and 1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3). Using osteosarcoma cells, Western blot, real time RT-PCR, and promoter-luciferase assays, we have examined the interaction between PRL and 1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3) and demonstrated that physiological concentrations of PRL block increased osteocalcin and vitamin D receptor (VDR) expression in response to 1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3.) This blockade was shown to be the result of lack of nuclear accumulation of the VDR in response to 1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3). Although inhibition of proteasomic degradation with MG132 had no effect on the VDR itself in a 30-min time frame, it relieved the blockade by PRL. Analysis of ubiquitinated proteins brought down by immunoprecipitation with anti-VDR showed PRL regulation of a 250-kDa protein-VDR complex. P250 was identified as the breast cancer tumor suppressor gene product, BRCA1, by Western blot of the VDR immunoprecipitate and confirmed by immunoprecipitation with anti-BRCA1 and blotting for the VDR in the absence and presence of PRL. Knockdown of BRCA1 inhibited nuclear translocation of the VDR and the ability of 1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3) to induce the VDR. This, to our knowledge, is the first demonstration of a role for BRCA1 in nuclear accumulation of a steroid hormone and the first demonstration that PRL has the potential to affect the cell cycle through effects on BRCA1.

ELF magnetic fields initiate protein tyrosine phosphorylation of the T cell receptor complex.

The human T cell line Jurkat registers a sinusoidal extremely low frequency (ELF), 0.10 mT magnetic fields (MFs) at the level of the plasma membrane. In this study, the protein tyrosine phosphorylation (PY) of two membrane-associated proteins in Jurkat cells were examined following a short-term MFs exposure, the zeta chains and the Src kinases p56lck. These proteins are interesting to study since the earliest biochemical event upon T cell receptor (TcR) activation is PY of the zeta chains. These signalling chains in the TcR complex was assessed using Western blotting and the activation of the p56lck kinase was analysed by in vitro kinase assay. The MFs exposure of Jurkat for 5 min activated p56lck and resulted in PY of zeta. These findings are in line with earlier reports on how MFs exposure affects signal transduction in Jurkat.