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. 1993 Aug 1;90(15):6944–6948. doi: 10.1073/pnas.90.15.6944

Interferon alpha induces protein kinase C-epsilon (PKC-epsilon) gene expression and a 4.7-kb PKC-epsilon-related transcript.

C Wang 1, S N Constantinescu 1, D J MacEwan 1, B Strulovici 1, L V Dekker 1, P J Parker 1, L M Pfeffer 1
PMCID: PMC47051  PMID: 8346200

Abstract

Protein kinases play key roles in the induction by human interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) of specific gene expression and biological activity in various human cell lines. We now report that IFN-alpha increased the 7-kb transcript for the epsilon isotype of protein kinase C (PKC-epsilon) and the cellular content of PKC-epsilon 24 and 48 hr after IFN-alpha addition (a 2-fold and 6-fold increase, respectively). Furthermore, IFN-alpha markedly induced a 4.7-kb transcript that hybridized to a PKC-epsilon-specific, but not to a PKC-eta-specific, cDNA probe. The induction of the 4.7-kb PKC-epsilon-related mRNA by IFN-alpha had the following properties reported for the classical IFN-alpha-stimulated genes: rapid kinetics of induction, high maintained levels in IFN-alpha-sensitive but not in IFN-alpha-resistant cell lines, protein synthesis-independent induction, and high sensitivity to inhibitors of protein tyrosine kinase activity. These results show that the regulation of gene expression by IFN-alpha include not only the classical IFN-alpha-stimulated genes but also the coordinated regulation of two PKC-epsilon-related transcripts that appeared to be highly relevant to the biological actions of IFN-alpha.

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Selected References

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