We investigated tyrosine phosphorylation of proteins in primary human leukemia cells stimulated by granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF), interleukin-3 (IL-3), tumor necrosis factor (TNF), thrombopoietin (TPO) and phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) in 61 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), nine patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in blastic crisis and four patients in chronic phase, and compared these data of leukemia with those of normal human immature hematopoietic cells. These cytokines and PMA induced tyrosine phosphorylation of proteins in a manner characteristic for each cytokine or PMA in AML cells. G-CSF, GM-CSF and IL-3 frequently phosphorylated p92, p80, p70, p44 and p42. p95 was frequently phosphorylated by G-CSF, and was phosphorylated in one third of the cases by TPO. On the other hand, TNF selectively induced tyrosine phosphorylation of p42, and PMA selectively induced that of p44 and p42. In marked contrast to AML cells, CML cells responded poorly to cytokines with protein tyrosine phosphorylation, and normal human bone marrow mononuclear cells and CD34-positive cells also showed poor response to cytokines. The results of the immunoprecipitation studies showed tyrosine phosphorylation of signal transducers and activators of transcription (Stat) 5 induced by G-CSF, GM-CSF, IL-3 and/or TPO in six cases, that of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) by GM-CSF in two cases and that of p38 by TNF in three cases. Intracellular amount of Stat5 was markedly increased in AML cells compared with that in CML cells and normal human bone marrow cells. whereas intracellular amount of ERK and p38 was uniformly abundant in both leukemic and normal cells. These results show cytokine-specific and amplified tyrosine phosphorylation of proteins in AML cells and suggest that amplified response might, at least in part, result from the increased amount of signaling molecules such as Stat5.