Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) chaperone regulation and survival of cells compensating for deficiency in the ER stress response kinase, PERK

The activity of PERK, an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) transmembrane protein kinase, assists in an ER stress response designed to inhibit general protein synthesis while allowing up-regulated synthesis of selective proteins such as the ATF4 transcription factor. PERK null mice exhibit phenotypes that especially affect secretory cell types. Although embryonic fibroblasts from these mice are difficult to transfect with high efficiency, we have generated 293 cells stably expressing the PERK-K618A dominant negative mutant. 293/PERK-K618A cells, in response to ER stress: (a) do not properly inhibit general protein synthesis, (b) exhibit defective/delayed induction of ATF4 and BiP, and (c) exhibit exuberant splice activation of XBP1 and robust cleavage activation of ATF6, with abnormal regulation of calreticulin levels. The data suggest compensatory mechanisms allowing for cell survival in the absence of functional PERK. Interestingly, although induction of CHOP (a transcription factor implicated in apoptosis) is notably delayed after onset of ER stress, 293/ PERK-K618A cells eventually produce CHOP at normal or even supranormal levels and exhibit increased apoptosis either in response to general ER stress or, more importantly, to specific misfolded secretory proteins.