Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 5 Activation Is Sufficient to Drive Transcriptional Induction of Cyclin D2 Gene and Proliferation of Rat Pancreatic β-Cells

Signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (STAT5) activation plays a central role in GH- and prolactin-mediated signal transduction in the pancreatic β-cells. In previous experiments we demonstrated that STAT5 activation is necessary for human (h)GH-stimulated proliferation of INS-1 cells and hGH-induced increase of mRNA-levels of the cell cycle regulator cyclin D2. In this study we have further characterized the role of STAT5 in the regulation of cyclin D expression and β-cell proliferation by hGH. Cyclin D2 mRNA and protein levels (but not cyclin D1 and D3) were induced in a time-dependent manner by hGH in INS-1 cells. Inhibition of protein synthesis by coincubation with cycloheximide did not affect the hGH-induced increase of cyclin D2 mRNA levels at 4 h. Expression of a dominant negative STAT5 mutant, STAT5aΔ749, partially inhibited cyclin D2 protein levels. INS-1 cells transiently transfected with a cyclin D2 promoter-reporter construct revealed a 3- to 5-fold increase of transcriptional act...