Roles of IFN consensus sequence binding protein and PU.1 in regulating IL-18 gene expression.

IL-18 is expressed from a variety of cell types. Two promoters located upstream of exon 1 (5'-flanking region) and upstream of exon 2 (intron 1) regulate its expression. Both promoter regions were cloned into pCAT-Basic plasmid to yield p1-2686 for the 5'-flanking promoter and p2-2.3 for the intron 1 promoter. Both promoters showed basal constitutive activity and LPS inducibility when transfected into RAW 264.7 macrophages. To learn the regulatory elements of both promoters, 5'-serial deletion and site-directed mutants were prepared. For the activity of the p1-2686 promoter, the IFN consensus sequence binding protein (ICSBP) binding site between -39 and -22 was critical. EMSA using an oligonucleotide probe encompassing the ICSBP binding site showed that LPS treatment increased the formation of DNA binding complex. In addition, when supershift assays were performed, retardation of the protein-DNA complex was seen after the addition of anti-ICSBP Ab. For the activity of the p2-2.3 promoter, the PU.1 binding site between -31 and -13 was important. EMSA using a PU.1-specific oligonucleotide demonstrated that LPS treatment increased PU.1 binding activity. The addition of PU.1-specific Ab to LPS-treated nuclear extracts resulted in the formation of a supershifted complex. Furthermore, cotransfection of ICSBP or PU.1 expression vector increased p1 promoter activity or IL-18 expression, respectively. Taken together, these results indicate that ICSBP and PU.1 are critical elements for IL-18 gene expression.     

Structural and functional characterizations of the 5'-flanking region of the mouse glucagon receptor gene: comparison with the rat gene

A putative proximal promoter was defined previously for the mouse glucagon receptor (GR) gene. In the present study, a distal promoter was characterized upstream from a novel non-coding exon revealed by the 5'-rapid amplification of cDNA ends from mouse liver tissue. The 5'-flanking region of the mouse GR gene was cloned up to 6 kb and the structural organization was compared to the 5' untranslated region of the rat gene cloned up to 7 kb. The novel exon, separated by an intron of 3.8 kb from the first coding exon, displayed a high homology (80%) with the most distal of the two untranslated exons found in the 5' region of the rat GR gene. The mouse distal promoter region, extending up to -1 kb from the novel exon, displayed 85% identity with the rat promoter. Both contain a highly GC-rich sequence with five putative binding sites for Sp1, but no consensus TATA or CAAT elements. To evaluate basal promoter activities, 5'-flanking sequences of mouse or rat GR genes were fused to a luciferase reporter gene and transiently expressed in a mouse and in a rat cell line, respectively or in rat hepatocytes. Both mouse and rat distal promoter regions directed a high level of reporter gene activity. Deletion of the Sp1 binding sites region or mutation of the second proximal Sp1 sequence markedly reduced the distal promoter activity of the reporter gene. The mouse proximal promoter activity was 2- to 3-fold less than the distal promoter, for which no functional counterpart was observed in the similar region of the rat gene.