Identification of an E-Box Motif As a Transcriptional Repressor Element in the Proximal Promoter Region of the GCLC Gene in Rat Lung Epithelial L2 Cells
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中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.cn Original Contribution Identification of an E-box motif as a transcriptional repressor element in the proximal promoter region of the GCLC gene in rat lung epithelial L2 cells Lin-Ling Chenga, Bing Lib, Jian-Dong Luoc, Hong-Bin Tub, Qi-Cai Liub, Pixin Rana,* aGuangzhou Institute of Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Medical College, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510182, People’s Republic of China bThe Research Center for Experimental Medicine, Guangzhou Medical College, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510182, People’s Republic of China cDepartment of Pharmacology, Guangzhou Medical College, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510182, People’s Republic of China Received 11 January 2005; revised 24 April 2005; accepted 16 May 2005 Abstract Glutathione (GSH) is a critical antioxidant for protecting the airway epithelium from oxidant injury and its levels are mainly controlled by glutamate-cysteine ligase (GCL), which is the rate-limiting enzyme in GSH synthesis. A full understanding of the gene regulation mechanism of this important enzyme may disclose the role it plays in respiratory diseases. GCL is made up of two differentially regulated subunits, a catalytic or heavy subunit (GCLC) and a modifier or light subunit (GCLM). Many studies in this field led to the findings of important positive regulatory regions of the GCLC promoter. For a detailed analysis of this gene regulation in the respiratory system, we cloned a 1.76-kb 5V- flanking region of the rat GCLC gene, inserted into a luciferase reporter vector. Exonuclease III was used to cut the 5V-flanking region of the rat GCLC gene unidirectionally into deletion mutants of different lengths. Sequential deletion analysis revealed that regions from À403 to À111 and from À705 to À613 are involved in positive regulation and the region from À745 to À705 is involved in negative regulation of the GCL gene in rat lung epithelial L2 cells. Specific proteins binding to these regions were confirmed by electrophoretic mobility-shift assays (EMSAs) and antibody supershift assays. An E-box motif was found in the negative regulatory region À745 to À705. Site-directed mutagenesis proved that the functional element in this negative regulatory region was a putative E-box element. EMSA and supershift assays showed that USF1 and USF2 can specifically bind to the E-box element. Overexpression of USFs in L2 cells led to a decreased activity of the GCLC promoter. Western blotting demonstrated that the expression of GCLC protein was decreased in the retroviral USFs-expressing cells than in nontransfected (no DNA added) cells, suggesting that USF binding to the E-box at À729/À724 serves to trans-repress GCLC gene expression. These findings indicate that the E-box is an important transcriptional suppressor element in the GCLC promoter in rat lung epithelial L2 cells. Inhibition of interaction between the E-box and the USF may provide an effective means of ameliorating oxidant injury of the lung. D 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: E-box element; Upstream stimulatory factor; Glutamate-cysteine ligase; Glutathione; Oxidative stress; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Abbreviations: GCL, glutamate-cysteine ligase; GCLC, GCL catalytic or heavy subunit; GCLM, GCL modifier or light subunit; EMSA, electro- Introduction phoretic mobility-shift assay; COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; ELF, epithelial lining fluid; AP-1, activator protein 1; AP-4, activator protein 4; NF-nB, nuclear factor nB; NF1, nuclear factor 1; C/EBP, CAAT-enhancer- The lung is more liable to exposure to harmful sti- binding protein; MZF1, myeloid zinc finger 1; SP1, stimulating protein 1; mulators such as oxidants, than most other tissues. Cigarette 14 Arnt, aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator; bHLHZip, basic helix- smoke is a very potent oxidant, as one puff contains 10 – loop-helix leucine zipper; ARE, antioxidant-response element; PCR, 1016 free radicals and has been implicated in the patho- polymerase chain reaction; FBS, fetal bovine serum; DTT, dithiothreitol; genesis and progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary PBS, phosphate-buffered sodium; SDS-PAGE, sodium dodecyl sulfate- polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis; HRP, horseradish peroxidase. disease (COPD) [1,2]. Both reactive oxygen species from * Corresponding author. Fax: +86 20 8134 0442. inhaled cigarette smoke and those endogenously formed by E-mail address: [email protected] (P. Ran). inflammatory cells constitute an increased intrapulmonary 0891-5849/$ - see front matter D 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2005.05.025 转载 中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.cn L.-L. Cheng et al. / Free Radical Biology & Medicine 39 (2005) 1030–1040 1031 oxidant burden. Structural changes to essential components ison, WI). All restriction enzymes were purchased from either of the lung are caused by oxidative stress, contributing to Promega or New England Biolabs (Beverly, MA). The DIG irreversible damage of both parenchyma and airway walls gel-shift kit was purchased from Roche Molecular Bioche- [3]. Therefore, oxidative stress plays a pivotal role in the micals (Mannheim, Germany). pCMV, pCMV-USF1, and pathogenesis and progression of COPD. Antioxidant ther- pCMV-USF2 were kindly provided by Dr. Michele Sawa- apy strategies may provide an effective means of ameliorat- dogo. Antibodies used for supershift assays, including USF-1 ing lung dysfunction in COPD individuals. (sc-229), USF-2 (sc-862), c-Myc (sc-764), Arnt1 (sc-8077), Epithelial lining fluid (ELF) contains more than a 140-fold MyoD(sc-760), Mad1(sc-222),Max (sc-197), were purchased level of glutathione (GSH) compared with plasma [4,5], from Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc. (Santa Cruz, CA). and GSH appears to be a critical antioxidant in protecting the airway epithelium from oxidative injury [6]. The rate- Cell culture limiting enzyme in GSH synthesis is glutamate-cysteine ligase (GCL, also referred to as g-glutamylcysteine synthe- Rat lung epithelial L2 cells, initially derived from type II tase or g-GCS) [7], which is a heterodimer consisting of a pneumocytes [12,13], were obtained from the American catalytic or heavy subunit (GCLC, 73 kDa) and a regulatory Type Culture Collection (ATCC, Rockville, MD). L2 cells or light subunit (GCLM, 27.7 kDa) [8], The heavy subunit were grown in F-12K medium (Gibco-BRL Life Technol- contains all of the catalytic activity, and it has been ogies, Grand Island, NY) supplemented with 10% fetal investigated in more detail than the light subunit [9]. Both bovine serum. subunits can be induced by acute oxidative stress and inflammatory mediators [10,11]. Since GCL is a major Cloning of the 5V-flanking region of the rat GCLC gene determinant of the overall GSH synthesis capacity, regulation of GCL subunits has been a topic of extensive research. Primers were designed according to the sequence reported Using different strategies, many studies have reported that previously [14] (GenBank Accession No. AF218362) as substances such as oxidants, phenol antioxidants, cytokines, follows: ctggagaatctccagcatccag and atggccgcgtcctcctcctg. heavy metals, nitric oxide donors, ionizing radiation, chemo- Genomic DNA was extracted from rat peripheral blood with therapeutic agents, growth factors, hormone, oxidized low- the EZNA blood DNA kit (Omega, Guangzhou) and acted density lipoprotein, etc. can regulate transcription of the as the template for PCR amplification of the 5V-flanking GCLC gene by activating transcription factors such as NF-nB region of rat GCLC gene. The PCR condition was that after and AP-1, and thus regulating GCL holoenzyme synthesis initial denaturing at 95-C for 1 min, each cycle of [6]. These works demonstrated that the lung tissue can amplification consisted of denaturation at 95-C for 1 min, increase the expression of GCL to neutralize the adverse annealing at 55-C for 1 min, polymerization at 72-C for 1 effects of harmful stimulators. In the present study, we min, and a further polymerization for 10 min after 30 investigated the characterization of the 5V-flanking region of amplication cycles. The PCR product was purified on the rat GCLC and its transcriptional regulation in rat lung agarose gel, subcloned into pGEM-T easy vector (Promega) epithelial L2 cells. Our results proved that there are two with T4 DNA Ligase, and then sequenced using the positive regulatory regions which exist in À403 to À111 and automated ABI Prism dRhodamine Terminator cycle À705 to À613. Transcriptional factors NF1, C/EBP, MZF1, sequencer performed by Shanghai Sangon. A 1.76-kb 5V- AP-1, NF-nB, and SP1 were able to bind to positive flanking region of the rat GCLC gene was cloned into the regulatory regions. In addition to the classical positive SmaI site of promoterless pGL-3 enhancer vector (Promega) regulation elements, we report a negative regulatory region creating the recombinant plasmid À1758/+2 GCLC-luc. All which exists in À745 to À705 in the GCLC gene of rat lung the procedures, including PCR, restriction enzyme diges- epithelial L2 cells. Site-directed mutagenesis proved that the tion, isolation, ligation, transformation, extraction and functional element in this negative regulatory region was a purification of the plasmid, and agarose gel electrophoresis putative E-box element. Transcriptional factors USF1 and were performed according to the methods reported by USF2 were able to bind to the E-box motif and significantly Sambrook and Russell [15]. inhibited GCLC promoter activity and protein synthesis. This may represent a new pathway for