Reconstitution of the functional mouse oncostatin M (OSM) receptor: Molecular cloning of the mouse OSM receptor β subunit

Oncostatin M (OSM) is a member of the interleukin-6 (IL-6) family of cytokines that share the gp130 receptor subunit. Of these family members, leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is most closely related to OSM, and various overlapping biologic activities have been described between human LIF and OSM (hLIF and hOSM). Two types of functional hOSM receptors are known: the type I OSM receptor is identical to the LIF receptor that consists of gp130 and the LIF receptor subunit (LIFRβ), and the type II OSM receptor consists of gp130 and the OSM receptor β subunit (OSMRβ). It is thus conceivable that common biologic activities between hLIF and hOSM are mediated by the shared type I receptor and OSM-specific activities are mediated by the type II receptor. However, in contrast to the human receptors, recent studies have demonstrated that mouse OSM (mOSM) does not activate the type I receptor and exhibits unique biologic activity. To elucidate the molecular structure of the functional mOSM receptor, we cloned a cDNA encoding mOSMRβ, which is 55.5% identical to the hOSMRβ at the amino acid level, mOSM-responsive cell lines express high-affinity mOSM receptors, as well as mOSMRβ, whereas embryonic stem cells, which are responsive to LIF but not to mOSM, do not express mOSMRβ, mOSMRβ alone binds mOSM with low affinity (kd = 13.0 nmol/L) and forms a high-affinity receptor (kd = 606 pmol/L) with gp130. Ba/F3 transfectants expressing both mOSMRβ and gp130 proliferated in response to mOSM, but failed to respond to LIF and human OSM. Thus, the cloned mOSMRβ constitutes an essential and species-specific receptor component of the functional mOSM receptor. Reminiscent of the colocalization of the mOSM and mLIF genes, the mOSMRβ gene was found to be located in the vicinity of the LIFRβ locus in the proximal end of chromosome 15.