The role of SHIP in growth factor induced signalling

The recently cloned, hemopoietic-specific, src homology 2 (SH2)-containing inositol phosphatase, SHIP, is rapidly gaining prominence as a potential re gulator of all phosphatidylinositol (PI)-3 kinase mediated events since it has been shown both in vitro and in vivo to hydrolyze the 5' phosphate from phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate (PI-3,4,5-P-3). Thus SHIP, and it s more widely expressed counterpart, SHIP2, could play a central role in de termining PI-3,4,5-P-3 and PI-3,4-P-2 levels in many cell types. To explore the in vivo function of SHIP further we recently generated a SHIP knock ou t mouse and in this review we discuss experiments carried out with bone mar row derived mast cells (BMMCs) from these animals. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scienc e Ltd. All rights reserved.