Sublethal levels of oxidant stress stimulate multiple serine/threonine kinases and suppress protein phosphatases in Jurkat T cells.

Sublethal concentrations of reactive oxygen intermediates including H2O2 can alter human T cell function and inhibit proliferative responses but relatively little is known about the effects of low levels of oxidant stress on signaling pathways. In the present study, we investigated whether the exposure of Jurkat T cells to micromolar concentrations of H2O2 might influence the activity of certain serine/threonine kinases and protein phosphatases important for T cell signaling as well as initiation of nuclear events. Jurkat cells treated with 100-200 microM H2O2 exhibited rapid increases in cytosolic protein kinase C (PKC) activity without detectable translocation of PKC to the membrane/particulate compartment. The stimulation of PKC activity by H2O2 was associated with an increase in the activation of kinases phosphorylating myelin basic protein (MBP), a substrate for mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase and RRLSSLRA (S6 peptide; a substrate for the approximately 90-kDa ribosomal S6 kinases). Optimal activation of MAP kinase in cells treated with H2O2 was preceded by increases in protein tyrosine phosphorylations and occurred at sublethal concentrations of H2O2 which did not markedly deplete intracellular ATP. Pretreatment of cells with the PKC inhibitors sangivamycin and H7 suppressed but did not block the stimulation of MAP kinase activity in response to H2O2 or phytohemagglutinin. The activities of both protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) and protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) were reduced after H2O2 treatment of intact cells. Furthermore, kinetic studies showed that H2O2 was capable of suppressing the activities of PTP and PP2A before inducing optimal increases in MAP kinase activity. These results demonstrate that the exposure of T cells to sublethal levels of oxidant stress acutely stimulates the MAP kinase cascade and suggest that this activation may involve PKC-dependent and -independent pathways as well as inhibition of certain protein phosphatases.