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J Biol Chem, Vol. 273, Issue 40, 26069-26077, October 2, 1998
From the Cedars-Sinai Research Institute, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California 90048
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ABSTRACT |
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We recently reported a placenta-specific enhancer
in the human leukemia inhibitory factor receptor (LIFR)
gene and now show detailed characterization of the 226-base
pair enhancer (
4625/
4400 nucleotides). Four of twenty-two mutants
in linker analysis showed reduced promoter activities to 45, 30, 10, and 10%, respectively. Specific binding of region A (
4617/
4602)
with nuclear extract was competed by a known Oct-1 oligo and
supershifted by Oct-1 antibody. Specific binding of region B
(
4549/
4535) was competed by a GATA oligo, but could not be
supershifted by four GATA antibodies. Nevertheless, mutagenesis showed
that critical bases in region B were identical to the GATA core motif,
indicating that region B may bind to a novel GATA family transcription
factor. The other two adjacent regions designated as region C
(
4464/
4445) showed no known consensus binding sites, and their
specific placental JEG-3 nuclear extract binding was not evident in
nonplacental nuclear extracts and was not competed by a trophoblast
specific element (TSE), indicating that region C is a novel
placenta-specific element (PSE, CATTTCCTGAACTAGTTTTT). Footprinting
localized the binding boundary of PSE-binding protein (PSEB), and three
Gs were found to be important for specific PSE binding. UV
cross-linking showed that PSEB had a molecular mass of ~160 kDa,
substituting the PSE with two previously reported placenta elements TSE
or chorionic somatomammotropin enhancer factor 1 (CSEF-1) motifs resulted in markedly different promoter activities, indicating that
PSEB is indeed different from TSE binding protein or CSEF-1. These
results are the first demonstration that a novel PSE is the major
element for placenta-specific enhancer activity in human LIFR gene.
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INTRODUCTION |
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The leukemia inhibitory factor receptor (LIFR),1 a member of the hematopoietic cytokine receptor family, includes receptors for cytokines functioning in immune and hematopoietic systems such as interleukins 2-7 and 9, erythropoietin, granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor, and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (1-3). Additional receptors for factors normally functioning outside the immune and hematopoietic systems, such as growth hormone, prolactin, ciliary neurotropic factor, and leptin are also members of this group (1, 4, 5). The LIFR was found to contain 1097 amino acid residues (a 44-residue signal sequence, a 789-residue extracellular domain, a 26-residue transmembrane domain, and a 238-residue cytoplasmic domain) (6), and exhibits the characteristic structure of this receptor family, including two folding domains in the extracellular region and a Trp-Ser-X-Trp-Ser motif in the C-terminal (1). The LIFR heterodimerizes with gp130 to mediate intracellular signaling of interleukin-6 (IL-6) cytokine family members and is a substrate for mitogen-activated protein kinase (7-12). The phenotype of the LIFR knockout mouse demonstrates that LIFR is essential for animal survival (13, 14), whereby homozygote animals died within 24 h of birth (13, 14), and severely affected tissues include placenta, bone, liver, and neurons (13). Disrupted placental architecture results in poor intrauterine nutrition; and reduced bone volume and increased osteoclast numbers lead to imbalanced bone development and severe perinatal osteopenia, excessive fetal hepatic glycogen storage, and significant neuronal losses (13, 14).
The ligand for LIFR, leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), is a member of IL-6 cytokine family currently including IL-6, IL-11, oncostatin M, ciliary neurotropic factor, and cardiotropin (7, 11, 15). These cytokines possess pleiotropic and redundant functions (11, 16, 17) including growth promotion and/or activation of hematopoietic, heptic, osteogenic, and/or neuronal cells (7, 8, 18, 19). However, some members such as LIF also exhibit unique differentiated functions; LIF maintains the pluripotency of embryonic stem cells in vitro (20), and LIF knockout mice are unable to implant blastocysts, resulting in infertility, and also have an attenuated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis stress response (16, 21).
In humans, endometrial LIF mRNA is significantly increased in the mid and late secretory phase compared with the proliferative phase of the menstrual cycle (22, 23). Although the LIFR is undetectable in nonpregnant endometrium, LIFR mRNA is highly expressed in the chorionic villus during the first trimester and in term placenta (24), suggesting that LIFR may play a regulatory role in trophoblast growth and differentiation in the human placenta. These observations indicate the important functions of LIF/LIFR system in placental development and pregnancy, and are supported by the LIF/LIFR knockout results. These findings also suggests that specific gene transcriptional regulation of the LIF/LIFR system occurs during these reproductive stages, and malfunctioning of specific regulation would impair and/or lead to failure of the normal pregnancy process.
We have recently demonstrated that the human LIFR gene
utilizes alternative promoters to regulate its expression in placental and nonplacental tissues (25). Interestingly, a placenta-specific enhancer was identified ~4.6 kb upstream to the placenta-specific promoter (25). The minimal enhancer, 226 bp, increases heterologous promoter activity 10-35-fold when placed upstream or downstream of the
reporter gene in either orientation (25). Within this 226-bp region,
several potential transcription factor binding sites were predicted,
but site-directed mutagenesis failed to correlate two transcription
factors, Sp1 and NF-
B, with enhancer activity (24). Here we report a
detailed characterization of this minimal enhancer with three critical
elements contributing to the enhancer activity, an Oct-1 binding site
at
4617/
4602 site; a GATA-like element at
4549/
4535 site, and a
novel placenta-specific element (PSE) at
4464/
4445.
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EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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Cell Lines, Plasmids, and Antibodies--
A human
choriocarcinoma cell line JEG-3 (ATCC HTB-36) was maintained in
Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium high glucose (Life Technologies,
Inc.), supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS); a human breast
adenocarcinoma MCF-7 (ATCC HTB-22), a human cervix carcinoma cell HeLa
(ATCC CCL-2) was maintained in
minimum essential medium with 10%
FBS, a human osteogenic sarcoma cell line U-2 OS (ATCC HTB-96) was
maintained in McCoy's 5A medium with 10% FBS, a human thyroid
carcinoma TC1 (gift of Dr. Jerome Hershman) was maintained in RPMI 1640 with 10% FBS. A mouse pituitary tumor cell line AtT20 (ATCC CCL-89)
and a rat pituitary tumor cell line GC were maintained in Dulbecco's
modified Eagle's low glucose medium with 10% FBS; another pituitary
tumor cell line GH4 was maintained in F10K medium with 10% FBS.
Plasmids pGL3PX-(SK)1 (
4400/
4625 nt), pGL3-KP(-798),
and pGL3-U2P were constructed as reported previously (25). Expression
plasmid pCG Oct-1 and pCG Oct-2 were kindly provided by Dr. Winshop
Herr (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory). Antibodies to human GATA-1, -2, -3, and -4, and Oct-1 were purchased from Santa Cruz
Biotechnologies.
Oligos-- Oligos used for electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) assays are listed in Table I.
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Linker Analysis and Mutagenesis-- A total of 22 10-bp replacement (AGCTTAAGCT) mutants in linker analysis were generated by ExSite (Stratagene) or Kunkel's method (26). Site-directed mutagenesis disrupting Oct-1 binding site or GATA binding site and substitution mutagenesis with TSE or chorionic somatomammotropin enhancer factor 1 (CSEF-1) binding sites at PSE position were also performed. The mutagenic primer sequences are available upon request. All mutants were verified by sequencing.
Transient Cell Transfection--
All plasmids were prepared
using Maxi-prep kit (Qiagen). pCMV
-galactosidase was co-transfected
as an internal control. JEG-3 were transfected using standard
LipofectAMINE method (Life Technologies Inc.). Transfections were
performed in triplicate. For linker analysis, all 22 mutant plasmids
together with control pGL3PX-(SK)1 (
4400/
4625 nt) were
transfected in the same experiment and repeated twice. 48 h after
transfection, cell lysates were prepared for measurement of luciferase
and
-galactosidase activities.
Nuclear Extract Preparation, EMSA, and Supershift Assay-- Crude nuclear extracts from JEG-3, HeLa, TC1, MCF-7, U-2 OS, AtT20, and GC cells were prepared as previously reported (25). The protein concentrations of the nuclear extracts were quantitated by Bio-Rad assay (Bio-Rad). Equal amounts of nuclear extract from different cells were used in EMSA. Labeled oligonucleotide duplex (20,000-30,000 cpm) was mixed with ~5 µg of nuclear extract, 1 µg of poly(dI-dC) in 25 µl of reaction buffer. For Oct-1 and GATA-like elements, the binding buffer was 10 mM Tris-Cl, pH7.5, 100 mM KCl, 1 mM dithiothreitol, 8% glycerol. For the novel placental element, the binding buffer was 10 mM Hepes, pH 7.6, 50 mM KCl, 0.5 mM dithiothreitol, 0.1 mM EDTA, 10% glycerol. For competition assay, 200-fold excess cold competitor oligos were added prior to the addition of labeled probe. For supershift assay, antibody was added after addition of labeled probe and incubated at room temperature for 1 h or 4 °C overnight. EMSA samples were resolved on 5% nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis gel.
Mutant oligos disrupting G residues and their 3'- neighboring bases in this region were also used as competitor oligos to test the contribution of Gs to the binding complex and are listed in Table I. For location of the minimal region of PSE, nested oligos were synthesized as in Table I and used as competitor oligos.DNase I Footprinting--
DNase I footprinting was used to
localize the binding boundary of placenta-specific element binding
protein. The DNA probe was generated by a polymerase chain reaction in
which only one primer was labeled with [
-32P]ATP.
Probes for both plus and minus strands were mixed with 30 µg of JEG-3
nuclear extract in the binding buffer as used in EMSA. After incubation
on ice for 30 min, various amounts of DNase I were added and allowed to
incubate at room temperature for 1 min. Stop buffer (200 mM
NaCl, 2 mM EDTA, 1% SDS, 50 µg/ml tRNA) was added to
terminate the reaction. For the competition assays, 200-fold
placenta-specific element characterized in EMSA was used as cold
competitors. Samples were analyzed on 9% 8 M urea-PAGE gels. A GA ladder reaction was performed according to standard methods
(26).
UV Cross-linking-- For UV cross-linking, 50,000 cpm oligo duplex probe was incubated with 10 µg of JEG-3 nuclear extract and resolved as for EMSA. The wet gel was then irradiated with a 312-nm UV transilluminator, and the corresponding gel slice excised after autoradiography, eluted at room temperature in 10 mM Tris, pH 7.2, 0.1% SDS, 0.5 mM EDTA, 1 mM dithiothreitol, 100 mM NaCl for 2 h, and precipitated with 3 volumes of acetone. The protein precipitate was then resuspended in 1× SDS-PAGE loading buffer (26) and loaded onto a 10% SDS-PAGE along with protein marker. The gel was dried and autoradiographed.
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RESULTS |
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Linker Analysis Reveals Three Critical Regions within the LIFR
Placenta-specific Enhancer--
Previous transfection experiments
demonstrated that the cloned human LIFR gene enhancer was
active in choriocarcinoma JEG-3 and JAR cells, and inactive in cell
lines derived from nonplacental tissues such as liver, bone marrow,
thyroid, breast, and lung (25). At that time, we did not specifically
test pituitary cell lines, but placental and pituitary cells share
considerable similarities for transcriptional regulation of several
genes, including growth hormone, glycoprotein hormone
subunit,
chorionic somatomammotropin B (CS-B, or placental lactogen,
PL) (27-29). We therefore chose several available pituitary
cell lines, namely ACTH-producing AtT20 and growth hormone secreting
GH4 and GC cell lines to further test the specificity of the cloned
LIFR gene enhancer and two LIFR promoters. The
transfection results shown in Fig. 1
depict the inactive placenta-specific LIFR promoter in
pituitary cells, while the alternative LIFR promoter (25) is
strongly active in these pituitary cells. Also, the LIFR
gene enhancer, active in placental cell lines, is not active in the
three pituitary cell lines tested, further demonstrating its stringent
tissue specificity.
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B. Notably,
three NF-
B/c-Rel binding sites and two Sp1 binding sites were
revealed (25). Since both Sp1 and NF-[kapppa]B participate in
enhancer functions, we performed site-directed mutagenesis to disrupt
critical bases within the corresponding Sp1 or NF-
B consensus
regions within this enhancer, but failed to observe loss of enhancer
activity (25). Thus, it appears that the predicted Sp1 and
NF-
B/c-Rel binding sites are irrelevant to enhancer activity in
LIFR gene.
To characterize this placenta-specific enhancer from a functional point
of view, we performed a comprehensive linker analysis with the
introduction of 10 bp of replacement mutation covering the entire
enhancer. Twenty-two mutants were thus obtained, and their sequences
were confirmed. These mutants together with an enhancer control were
transfected into JEG-3 cells, and the result is as depicted in Fig.
2. Four mutants demonstrated consistent loss of enhancer activity. Mutants 2, 9, 17, and 18 have base substitutions from
4614 to
4605 nt,
4544 to
4535 nt,
4464 to
4455 nt, and
4454 to
4445 nt, respectively, and their
corresponding enhancer activities are reduced to 45, 30, 10, and 10%,
respectively. Also, mutant 17 and mutant 18 have adjacent base
substitutions. Taken together, these results indicate that three
elements in this enhancer, namely A (
4614/
4605 nt), B
(
4544/
4535 nt), and C (
4464/
4445 nt) are critical to the full
enhancer activity. Subsequently, a new data base search was performed
specifically for these three elements, and the result is as shown in
Fig. 3. Potential transcription factors
capable of binding these regions were identified including Oct-1 and
GATA.
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Region A Is an Oct-1 Binding Site--
Region A (
4614/
4605 nt)
was found to have considerable homology to a known transcription factor
Oct-1 consensus binding site (30), although a previous data base search
using higher stringency failed to predict a potential binding site in
this locus. To test whether Oct-1 does in fact bind to region A, both competition EMSA and Oct-1 antibody supershift assay were performed. An
oligo a (
4617/
4602 nt) covering region A was used as a probe to
perform these assay (Fig. 4). This oligo
produced a specific binding complex as determined by competition assay,
including using itself as a cold competitor (lanes 1-3).
Specific binding of the complex was also dissipated when a known Oct-1
oligo was added separately as competitor; moreover, this binding
complex was supershifted with the addition of an Oct-1 antibody
(lane 5). These results demonstrate that the transcription
factor Oct-1 binds to element A. Also, cotransfection of Oct-1
expression vector into JEG-3 cells slightly increased enhancer
activity, similar to previous observations that although TEF-5 is
required for hCS-B enhancer activity and binds to two
elements necessary for hCS-B enhancer activity,
overexpression of TEF-5 does not activate hCS-B enhancer
activity (31).
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Region B Is a GATA-like Element--
Region B (
4544/
4535 nt)
exhibited high homology to the GATA family member consensus binding
site (WGATAR), as demonstrated both in a previous search (25) and a
current search after linker analysis. Since GATA family members are
implicated in the placenta-specific regulation of glycoprotein hormone
subunit and adenosine deaminase (ADA) (32, 33), it was
important to determine whether region B is GATA-related.
4549/
4535 nt) covering region B and
JEG-3 nuclear extract was competed by a known GATA oligo at 200-fold
excess concentration (Fig. 5A,
lanes 1-4), while specific complexes formed by the known
GATA oligo probe and JEG-3 nuclear extract could only partially be
competed by the test oligo b at 200-fold excess concentration (Fig.
5A, lanes 11-14), suggesting that region B is a
GATA-like element; GATA oligo efficiently binds to the same proteins
that this element can bind, but the element cannot efficiently bind to
all proteins to which the GATA oligo binds. This hypothesis was
supported by supershift assays using antibodies to GATA-1, -2, -3, and
-4 as shown in Fig. 5A, lanes 5-8 and
lanes 15-18. Specific complexes between the known GATA oligo with JEG-3 nuclear extract were supershifted by antibody to
GATA-2, -3, or -4, indicating the capability of the known GATA oligo to
bind to GATA-2, -3, or -4 proteins, which are known to be present in
JEG-3 cells (32, 34). In contrast, specific complexes between the oligo
b and JEG-3 nuclear extract could not be supershifted by antibody to
GATA-2, -3, or -4, indicating that these specific complexes involved a
protein other than GATA-2, -3, or -4 recognizing region B.
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CT in WGATAR) abolishes binding
with GATA family members. To test whether these two bases are also
critical within this GATA-like element, we performed site-directed
mutagenesis to change GA in region B to CT, and in transient
transfection assays (Fig. 5B) showed that this new mutant
lost enhancer activity to a similar extent as the 10-bp replacement
mutant 9, demonstrating that this GA is a critical contact site between
region B and its corresponding binding protein.
The tissue distribution pattern of this corresponding protein was
examined by EMSA using nuclear extracts from cell lines of different
tissue origin (Fig. 5C). As depicted, this protein is also
present in all nuclear extracts tested, showing that it is not
placenta-specific; however, it seems to be more abundant in placental
JEG-3 cells than other nonplacental cells.
Region C Is a Novel PSE--
Another critical region
determined by linker analysis spanned from
4464 to
4445 nt,
which possesses a stronger effect on enhancer activity loss than does
region A or B. Data base searching also failed to indicate
corresponding transcription factor(s) for this region. From the results
shown above, it is apparent that binding proteins for region A and B
are present in many cell types and therefore placenta specificity of
the enhancer cannot be attributed to these elements.
4464/
4445 nt) covering region C as a probe for
EMSA with nuclear extracts from several cells, including JEG-3, HeLa,
GC, U-2 OS, AtT20, and MCF-7, a specific binding complex was observed
only in placental JEG-3 cells (Fig. 6).
Furthermore, this specific complex could not be competed by a
previously identified placenta-specific trophoblast specific element
(TSE) oligo (35) at 200-fold excess concentration (Fig. 6, lane
4). These results indicate that region C contains a novel PSE, and
its binding with corresponding protein(s) is a major factor
contributing to the tissue specificity and activity of the
LIFR gene enhancer.
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4455 to
4436 nt) and minus (
4462 to
4437 nt) strands. Analysis of the base composition of oligo c
(
4464/
4445 nucletides) revealed a total of 8 Gs in both plus and
minus strands. Since G has been found to be involved in various
specific DNA-protein interactions, and most mutations for disrupting
specific DNA-protein interactions usually utilize simultaneous
mutations at two neighboring bases we designed a total of 6 oligos
mutating every G and its 3'-neighboring base for use in the competition
assay (Fig. 7C, lanes 4-9). As depicted,
lanes 5, 6, and 9 using mutant oligos cM2, cM3, and cM6 exhibit the same specific binding complex as lane 1 without added competitor, suggesting that mutant
oligos cM2, cM3, and cM6 used in lanes 5, 6, and
9 contained mutations at critical bases, as underlined in
CATTTCCTGAACTAGTTTTT. To determine the minimal
region of PSE required for specific binding to this protein, we
designed a set of nested oligos and used them as competitor oligos to
test their ability to compete the specific binding. A typical
competiton assay to determine this minimal region is shown in Fig.
7C (lanes 10-12). The 14-bp oligo from
4459 to
4446 nt (lane 11) competed specific binding, while a 12-bp
oligo from
4458 to
4447 nt (lane 12) did not compete.
Thus the 14-bp element (
4459/
4446 nt) was defined as the minimal
functioning element for region C.
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- and 4-fold difference of promoter activity, respectively, as compared with the wild-type construct. And all three
constructs showed no promoter induction in U-2 OS cells, demonstrating
the inactiveness of these constructs in nonplacental cells. We also
performed UV cross-linking to determine the molecular mass of this
PSEB. As shown in Fig. 8B, the free probe recovered from
EMSA showed no signal in SDS-PAGE after UV cross-linking, while the
placenta-specific binding complex recovered from EMSA revealed a
molecular mass band of approximately 160 kDa in SDS-PAGE after UV
cross-linking. Since TSEB and CSEF-1 have molecular masses of 56 and 30 kDa, respectively (36, 37), it is therefore apparent that PSEB is a
novel protein rather than TSEB or CSEF-1.
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DISCUSSION |
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Placenta-specific transcriptional controls fall into two broad
categories: first, they may share the same promoter as other tissues,
but utilize placenta-specific enhancers or upstream elements as
observed for glycoprotein hormone
subunit, CS-B,
adenosine deaminase (ADA), and leptin genes (28, 29, 32, 38,
39); second, they may utilize both placenta-specific promoters and enhancers, as previously shown for the aromatase gene (33) and as we
now show for the LIFR gene.
A composite enhancer (
180/
111 bp) of the glycoprotein hormone
subunit gene promoter is responsible for its placental expression rather than pituitary gonadotropic or thyrotropic expression (29). This
enhancer was composed of two CREs and an upstream regulatory element
(URE) (40, 41), whereas URE could be further subdivided into three
overlapping sites,
activator element, TSE, and URE1 (42). It was
also found that the
activator element binds to hGATA-2 and hGATA-3.
TSE/URE1 forms an overlapping element that may bind two functionally
interchangeable proteins, TSEB and UREB (42, 43).
The proximal promoter for hCS-B is active in rat pituitary cells (44), however, an enhancer at 2.2 kb 3' of the hCS-B gene mediates its placenta-specific expression (45). Within this 138-bp enhancer, DNase I footprinting revealed four binding sites (DF-1, -2, -3, and -4). DF-3 and DF-4 appeared to be placenta-specific (46) and DF-4 may bind with the transcription enhancer factor-1 (TEF-1) (46). More recently, hCS enhancer function was shown to be mediated by cooperative binding of TEF-1 and a 30-kDa placenta-specific factor, CSEF-1 to multiple, low affinity binding sites within the region (37).
The ADA gene promoter is active in several cells, but a
770-bp enhancer located
5.4 kb upstream of the murine ADA
gene conferred its placenta-specific expression. Within this enhancer,
two motifs similar to TSE were found in a strong placenta-specific
footprint (FP1) (33). Two GATA motifs, two CREs, and five basic
helix-loop-helix sequence motif (CANNTG) were predicted to be involved
in enhancer activity (33).
For the leptin gene, although the same promoter is used for adipose and
placental transcription, an upstream enhancer (
1951/
1546 nt)
functions in JEG-3 and JAR choriocarcinoma cells but not in adipocytes
or HeLa cells (39). Three elements were suggested to participate in
DNA-protein interaction within the enhancer by DNase I footprinting,
including two motifs PLE1 (
1948/
1913) and PLE3 (
1909/
1874),
which appeared to be placenta-specific (39).
In the second group of placenta-specific gene transcripts, aromatase
expression is under placenta-specific control for its placental
transcripts, albeit mature aromatase protein is present in multiple
tissues. DNA sequences (
301/
115 nt) upstream to placenta-specific
exon I increased reporter expression 20-fold in its natural
orientation, and two important elements in this region contained a TSE
consensus sequence and are able to bind to TSEB (47).
Thus far identified regulatory elements participating in
placenta-specific transcription include CRE (TGACGTCA core), GATA (WGATAR core), basic helix-loop-helix (CANNTG core), TEF-1 binding site
(TGGAATG core), and placenta-specific elements such as TSE (ACAAAAATGACCTAAGGGTTGAAA), CSEF-1 binding site (TAGACTGGAATGTGGTCCAG), and the less characterized URE1 (GGGTTGAAACAAGATAA), PLE1
(
1948/
1913 CAGTACCCTCAGGCTTACTAGGGTGGTGAAAAACTC), PLE3
(
1909/
1874 CCTGGTAAATTTGTGGTCAGACCAGTTTTCTGCTCT). Corresponding
binding proteins include CREB, GATA-2, GATA-3, TEF-1, basic
helix-loop-helix binding protein, UREB, TSEB, and CSEF-1, among which
CREB, GATA-2, GATA-3, and TEF-1 are ubiquitous transcription factors; while TSEB and CSEF-1 are two proteins preferentially expressed in the placenta.
Although LIFR placenta-specific transcription appears characteristic of the same group as aromatase, LIFR gene enhancer utilizes a different set of DNA elements and binding proteins for its placenta-specific function. An Oct-1 binding site, a GATA-like element, and a novel PSE were found to be critical. Nevertheless, these elements share some resemblance to other placenta-specific elements. Although GATA-2, -3, and -4 antibody produced supershifts, it is clear that these proteins do not account for all the specific binding complexes containing GATA oligo; on the other hand, the binding protein for he GATA-like element was competed by the known GATA oligo, suggesting this novel GATA family member also has the potential to bind with previously detected GATA motifs in other placenta-specific enhancers. For the Oct-1 binding site, an interesting report has shown that TEF-1 binds to an Oct binding site (CAAAGCAT) in the SV40 enhancer (30) and also an Oct element overlaps with one of the TEF-1 binding sites in the HPV-16 enhancer (30). In our Oct-1 supershift assay, the specific binding complex was only partially supershifted, implying that the remaining binding complex might be derived from the Oct-1 binding site with another transcription factor such as TEF-1 (48) or TEF-5 (31). The core sequence of the novel placenta-specific element is CATGGCCTGAACTAGTTTTT. It does not share homology to TSE, CSEF binding site, PLE1, or PLE3, and thus this might be a new mechanism for regulation of placenta-specific gene expression.
One intriguing observation in studying placenta-specific transcription
of these genes is that no hormone response element has been shown to be
involved in their placenta-specific transcription, given the fact that
placenta is the major ex-pituitary organ that can produce hormones and
also an organ under the influence of several hormones during pregnancy.
For the human LIFR placenta-specific enhancer and promoter,
this also seems to be the case; although some glucocorticoid response
element, progesterone response element, retinoic acid response element,
and estrogen response element were predicted in the data base search,
neither dexamethasone, retinoic acid, progestrerone, nor
17-
-estradiol treatment of transfected JEG-3 cells showed
significant effects on LIFR promoter activity (data not
shown). Nor did the Northern analysis of JEG-3 cells treated with these
steroids reveal any effect on LIFR mRNA levels (data not
shown). These observations appear to be in constrast to the observation
that human LIFR mRNA levels increase during the first
trimester and term placenta. A possible explanation is that JEG-3
cells, as a differentiated cell line secreting high level of human
chorionic gonadotropin hormone, may not represent a suitable placental
cell type which is responsive to hormone treatment.
Since TSE was found to be involved in several placenta-specific
enhancers such as
subunit, hCS-B, aromatase, and
ADA, it was felt that TSE might be a master switch in
placenta cell differentation that simultaneously regulates a range of
placenta-specific gene expression (36). However, LIFR is not
under the same control because no TSE motif was detected. Leptin gene
transcription also does not appear to be under TSE control. These
observations suggest that the placenta may not possess a universal
master switch for all placenta-specific gene expression, although TSE
is involved in placenta-specific expression of several genes.
Several knockout mice targeting placenta-specific genes and
transcription factors involved in their regulations have been produced.
Glycoprotein hormone
subunit homozygous knockout mice did not
exhibit placental abnormality, although they are hypogonadal and
exhibit profound hypothyroidism and dwarfism (49). Mice lacking a
functional leptin gene not only became massively obese (50), but also
are infertile (51), but no placental abnormality was reported.
ADA-deficient fetuses lacking ADA in their
adjoining placenta die during late fetal development (52), while
genetically restoring ADA to placentas of
ADA-deficient fetuses rescued them from perinatal lethality
(53). While GATA-3 knockout mice have severe abnormalities in the
nervous system and fetal liver hematopoiesis (54), and GATA-2 knockout
mice are defective in early hematopoietic cell proliferation and mast
cell formation (55), both GATA-2 and GATA-3 knockout mice did not show
placental abnormalities, thus supporting the presence of other GATA
family members functioning in the placenta. TEF-1 null mice show
defects only in the heart, but not in other tissues, including the
placenta (56). Notably, these knockout results, except those of the
ADA knockout, showing no murine placental abnormalities, are
in marked contrast to the LIFR knockout mice which
demonstrated severe placental dysfunction (13).
We previously hypothesized that in placenta and/or during pregnancy, placenta-specific transcription factor(s) are active and interact with the LIFR gene placenta-specific enhancer and promoter, leading to enhanced transcription of LIFR mRNA restricted to the placenta. Identification of this novel PSE in LIFR gene enhancer strongly supports this hypothesis, and the cDNA cloning of the 160-kDa PSEB will further elucidate the specific placental transcriptional control of the LIFR.
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FOOTNOTES |
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* This work was supported in part by National Instiutes of Health Grant DK50238 and the Doris Factor Molecular Endocrinology Laboratory.The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. The article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
To whom correspondence should be addressed: Division of
Endocrinology, B-131, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 8700 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048. Tel.: 310-855-4691; Fax: 310-967-0119; E-mail:
melmed{at}cshs.org.
The abbreviations used are: LIFR, leukemia inhibitory factor receptorIL, interleukinLIF, leukemia inhibitory factorPSE, placenta-specific elementPSEB, PSE-binding proteinTSE, trophoblast specific elementTSEB, TSE-binding proteinCSEF-1, chorionic somatomammotropin enhancer factor 1CRE, cyclic AMP-response elementURE, upstream regulatory elementTEF, transcription enhancer factorFBS, fetal bovine serumEMSA, electrophoretic mobility shift assayPAGE, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresisnt, nucleotideADA, adenosine deaminaseCS-B, chorionic somatomammotropin BhCS-B, human CS-Bbp, base pair(s)kb, kilobase pair(s).
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