Identification of a 130-kilodalton tyrosine-phosphorylated protein induced by interleukin-11 as JAK2 tyrosine kinase, which associates with gp130 signal transducer.

Interleukin-11 (IL-11) shares the common signal transducer gp130 with IL-6, leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), and oncostatin M (OSM) and triggers activation of unknown tyrosine kinases as the early steps of signal transduction pathway. Here we identify a 130-kilodalton tyrosine-phosphorylated protein induced by IL-11 in 3T3-L1 cells as JAK2 tyrosine kinase. We further show that the in vitro kinase activity of JAK2 is greatly enhanced following stimulation with IL-11 in 3T3-L1 cells and TF-1 cells. Furthermore, we demonstrate that JAK2 physically associates with the signal transducer gp130. Similar results were observed following stimulation with IL-6, LIF, and OSM. However, we were unable to show that JAK1 is tyrosine phosphorylated and activated by IL-11 under identical conditions. These results suggest that JAK2 tyrosine kinase is one of the tyrosine kinases involved in signal transduction mediated by IL-11, IL-6, LIF, and OSM.