LKB1 is a serine/threonine kinase that directly activates the energy sensor AMP-activated protein kinase （AMPK） in response to bioenergetic stress, and mainly acts as a tumor suppressor that controls cell polarity a...LKB1 is a serine/threonine kinase that directly activates the energy sensor AMP-activated protein kinase （AMPK） in response to bioenergetic stress, and mainly acts as a tumor suppressor that controls cell polarity and proliferation. Although LKB1 is expressed in multiple tissues including the thymus and the spleen, its roles in T-cell development and function remain unknown. Here, we show that T-cell-specific deletion of LKB1 resulted in reduced survival of double-positive （DP） thymocytes and impaired generation of both CD4 and CD8 single-positive thymocytes. Disruption of LKB1 not only prevented the activation of AMPK but also impaired the expression of anti-apoptotic protein BcI-XL. Importantly, ectopic expression of either BcI-XL or the constitutively active AMPK mutant significantly rescued DP thymocytes from LKB1 deficiency-induced cell death. Moreover, ectopic expression of the constitutively active AMPK mutant was found to restore the expression of BcI-XL in LKB1-deficient DP thymocytes. These findings identify LKB1 as a critical factor for the survival of DP thymocytes through regulation of AMPK activation and Bcl-XL expression.展开更多
基金Acknowledgments We thank X Wu （Fudan University） for LckCre mouse and K Wong （Dana-Farber Cancer Institute） for LKB1 mouse, R Bosselut （National Institutes of Health） and D Li （Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences） for instructive comments on the manuscript We are grateful to our colleagues F Liu for animal husbandry, W Bian for cell sorting and X Wang for real-time PCR analysis. This research was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China （30872290, 30925031）, the Ministry of Science and Technology （2006CB504303, 2007CB815802, 2009ZX 10004-105）, the Hi-Tech Research and Development Program of China （2007AA02Z167）, the National Basic Research Program of China （2007CB914504） and the Chinese Academy of Sciences （KSCX 1-YW-R-43, KSCX2-YW-R-10）.
文摘LKB1 is a serine/threonine kinase that directly activates the energy sensor AMP-activated protein kinase （AMPK） in response to bioenergetic stress, and mainly acts as a tumor suppressor that controls cell polarity and proliferation. Although LKB1 is expressed in multiple tissues including the thymus and the spleen, its roles in T-cell development and function remain unknown. Here, we show that T-cell-specific deletion of LKB1 resulted in reduced survival of double-positive （DP） thymocytes and impaired generation of both CD4 and CD8 single-positive thymocytes. Disruption of LKB1 not only prevented the activation of AMPK but also impaired the expression of anti-apoptotic protein BcI-XL. Importantly, ectopic expression of either BcI-XL or the constitutively active AMPK mutant significantly rescued DP thymocytes from LKB1 deficiency-induced cell death. Moreover, ectopic expression of the constitutively active AMPK mutant was found to restore the expression of BcI-XL in LKB1-deficient DP thymocytes. These findings identify LKB1 as a critical factor for the survival of DP thymocytes through regulation of AMPK activation and Bcl-XL expression.
