Tyrosine phosphorylation sites in growth factor receptors serve two major purposes—to control the state of activity of the kinase and to create binding sites for downstream signal transduction molecules, which in many cases also are substrates for the kinase. The second part of the tyrosine kinase domain in the PDGFβ receptor is phosphorylated at Tyr-857, and mutant receptors carrying phenylalanine at this position have reduced kinase activity. Tyr-857 has therefore been assigned a role in positive regulation of kinase activity. Sites of tyrosine phosphorylation involved in binding signal transduction molecules have been identified in the juxtamembrane domain, the kinase insert, and in the C-terminal tail in the PDGFβ receptor. The phosphorylated tyrosine residue and in general three adjacent C-terminal amino acid residues form specific binding sites for signal transduction molecules. Binding to these sites involves a common conserved stretches, denoted the Src homology (SH) 2 domain and/or Phosphotyrosine Binding Domains (PTB). The specificity of these interactions appears to be very high, since mutant receptors carrying phenylalanine residues in one or several of the different phosphorylation sites generally lack the capacity to bind the targeted signal transduction molecule. The signal transduction molecules are either equipped with different enzymatic activities, or they are adaptor molecules, which in some but not all cases are found in complexes with subunits that carry a catalytic activity. Upon interaction with the activated receptor, the catalytic activities become up-regulated, through tyrosine phosphorylation or other mechanisms, generating a signal that may be unique for each type of signal transduction molecule.
Examination of the different signaling cascades induced by RTKs established Ras/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), PI-3 kinase, and phospholipase-γ (PLCγ) pathways as key downstream mediators of PDGFR signaling. In addition, reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent STAT3 activation has been established to be a key downstream mediator of PDGFR signaling in vascular smooth muscle cells.