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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 277, Issue 37, 34626-34633, September 13, 2002
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§,
,From the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801
Received for publication, May 28, 2002, and in revised form, July 9, 2002
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ABSTRACT |
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Estrogen receptor (ER) activity can be
modulated by the action of other nuclear receptors. To study whether ER
activity is altered by orphan nuclear receptors that mediate the
cellular response to xenobiotics, cross-talk between ER and
constitutive androstane receptor (CAR), steroid and xenobiotic
receptor, or peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor The hormone estrogen mediates diverse biological effects in the
cell. Estrogen plays a fundamental role in development and maintenance
of female reproductive organs and is involved in the initiation and
progression of tumors in these organs. In addition, estrogen has been
implicated in the control of gene regulation unrelated to cell growth
and reproduction, such as lipid metabolism in the liver (1, 2).
Estrogen action is mediated by the nuclear receptor, estrogen receptor
(ER),1 which is a
ligand-dependent transcription factor and consists of
distinct modular domains with distinct biological functions (3, 4).
Ligand-bound ER either binds to the ERE or interacts indirectly to the
DNA by tethering to other transcriptional factors in
estrogen-responsive target genes (5). Ligand binding induces a
conformational change of the ER and recruits differential sets of
coactivators or corepressors that determine biological activity by
altering the magnitude of the transcriptional responses according to
the physiological needs (6).
There is extensive evidence that ER-mediated transcriptional activity
is modulated by actions of other nuclear receptors and transcription
factors. Thyroid hormone receptor and PPAR Previous studies established that CAR influences steroid homeostasis
through transcriptional regulation of CYP2B genes, which are
steroid hydroxylases (13). Unlike classical nuclear receptors, transcriptional activity of CAR is ligand-independent (14). This
constitutive activity can be inhibited by the testosterone metabolites,
androstenol and androstanol (15). These androstanes antagonize
ligand-independent transcription activation by decreasing the
interaction of CAR with coactivators, such as GRIP-1 (16) or SRC-1
(15). CAR is sequestered in the cytoplasm, and treatment with
agonists, such as TCPOBOP (17) and phenobarbital, results in the
translocation of CAR into the nucleus (18), where it binds to its
cognate recognition sites as a heterodimer with RXR. Some agonists of
CAR also enhance transcriptional activity by promoting the interaction
of CAR with the coactivator SRC-1 or GRIP-1 (15, 16). In addition to
the CYP2B gene, CAR has also been shown to be involved in regulation of
genes involved in peroxisomal oxidation and the bilirubin
UDP-glucuronosyl transferase gene and perhaps genes regulated by
retinoic acid (19). The influence of CAR on the regulation of a broad
spectrum of genes with multiple and diverse cellular functions suggests
that the CAR-mediating signaling pathway is rather complex and thus
that CAR may involve cross-regulation with other cellular signaling pathways.
We have investigated the role of the xenobiotic orphan nuclear
receptors, CAR, SXR, and PPAR Materials and Plasmids--
The ligands moxestrol, rifampicin,
and 9-cis-retinoic acid were purchased from Sigma. The
synthetic ligand for PPAR Cell Culture and Transfection--
HepG2 cells were maintained
and transfected using LipofectAMINE 2000 (Invitrogen) as described (16,
24). For transfection, the cells were seeded in 24-well plates, and 250 ng of ATC4 (4ERE-tk-luciferase) or 500 ng of vitellogenin-luciferase
vector, 10 ng of pRL-SV40 for measuring the transfection efficiency,
and varying amounts of expression plasmids for ER, CAR, CAR mutant,
SXR, and PPAR GST Pull-down Assay--
The GST fusion proteins GST-ERLBD,
GST-CAR, GST-CAR mutant, and GST-GRIP-1 were expressed in
Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3 (pLys)) and purified by binding
to glutathione-Sepharose (Pharmacia Corp.) as described previously
(24). 35S-Labeled proteins were synthesized by in
vitro transcription and translation (TNT kit; Promega) according
to the manufacturer's instructions. The labeled proteins were
precleared by incubation with GST-bound glutathione-Sepharose at
4 °C for 30 min. One µg of GST or GST fusion protein was incubated
at 4 °C for 2 h with 4 µl of the precleared reticulocyte
lysate containing the labeled proteins in 100 µl of binding buffer
(25 mM Hepes-KOH, pH 7.6, 150 mM NaCl,
0.1 mM EDTA, 1 mM dithiothreitol, 0.5 mg/ml
bovine serum albumin, 10% glycerol, and 0.25% Nonidet P-40) in the
presence of protease inhibitors. When appropriate, 100 nM
E2, 10 µM TCPOBOP, and 100 µM
androstenol were added during the incubation. After the incubation, the
samples were extensively washed and eluted with 20 mM
reduced glutathione, the eluted proteins were separated by
SDS-PAGE, and radioactivity was visualized by autoradiography.
Gel Mobility Shift Assay and Antibody Supershift
Assay--
Six-histidine tagged CAR (pET28CAR) and FLAG-tagged RXR
were purified as described (24). Purified FLAG-tagged ER CAR Antagonizes ER-mediated Transcriptional Activity--
To
investigate whether functional cross-talk occurs between the ER and the
xenobiotic orphan nuclear receptors, CAR, SXR, and PPAR
To determine whether CAR represses ER-mediated transactivation in a
dose-dependent manner, increasing amounts of CAR expression plasmid were cotransfected. Transfection of increasing amounts of the
expression plasmid for CAR led to a progressive reduction of the
promoter activity induced by the moxestrol-activated ER (Fig.
2, lanes 2-5). Intriguingly,
an agonistic ligand of CAR, TCPOBOP, substantially potentiated
CAR-mediated repression of ER action (lanes 6-9).
Consistent with this result, an antagonist of CAR, androstenol,
alleviated the CAR-mediated repression of the ER transcriptional
activity (lanes 10-13). These results demonstrate that the
orphan nuclear receptor CAR substantially inhibits activation of the
4ERE containing luciferase reporter activity induced by moxestrol-activated ER in a ligand-modulating manner.
Because the reporter 4ERE-tk-luciferase is a synthetic ERE-containing
reporter plasmid, we also carried out similar experiments using a
reporter that contains the Xenopus vitellogenin B1 promoter (27). The vitellogenin gene is a well studied estrogen-responsive gene
expressed in hepatic cells. Luciferase reporter plasmid, vitellogenin-luciferase, contains a 610-bp fragment ( CAR Interacts with ER CAR/RXR Binds to the Consensus ERE--
The nuclear
receptors, thyroid hormone receptor, or PPAR CAR in 100-fold Excess Does Not Inhibit ER Binding to the ERE and
Does Not Interact with the ER Bound to the ERE--
To determine
whether CAR/RXR could inhibit ER binding to the ERE sequence,
increasing amounts of CAR/RXR were added to the in vitro
binding reaction containing a constant amount of ER. Incremental
addition of CAR/RXR (100-500 fmol) did not inhibit ER binding (5 fmol
of ER) to the ERE site (Fig. 5B, lanes 1-3). Conversely, increasing amounts of ER (2.5-20 fmol) added to the binding reaction containing constant amounts of CAR (500 fmol) elicited
a progressive decrease in CAR/RXR binding (Fig. 5B,
lanes 4-7). These results suggest that although CAR/RXR can
bind to the ERE, this heterodimer binds to the ERE with much lower
affinity than that of ER homodimers, and thus, CAR/RXR does not inhibit ER binding to the ERE site even when in great excess compared with ER.
Therefore, it is unlikely that competition for binding to the ERE by
CAR/RXR can explain the inhibition of ER action by CAR in the cell.
Our results from the GST pull-down experiments showed that CAR, but not
RXR (data not shown), interacted with the ER in vitro. Although CAR could interact with the ER in solution, to mediate transcriptional repression of the ER activity by interacting with the
ER, CAR must interact with the ER dimers in the ERE context. ER
dimerization and/or binding of the ER to the ERE could either mask the
ER interacting domain for the CAR or induce conformational change in
the ER, so that interaction of ER with CAR could be altered. The
addition of increasing amounts of CAR did not induce a protein-DNA
complex with a slower mobility compared with that of ER in the native
gel (data not shown). In turn, when increasing amounts of ER were added
to the CAR/RXR binding reaction, a higher molecular weight protein-DNA
complex was not formed (Fig. 5B). These results indicate
that CAR did not interact with ER in the ERE context,
although CAR strongly interacted with ER in the GST pull-down assay.
These results suggest that CAR may inhibit the ER-mediated
transactivation by mechanisms other than inhibiting the binding of the
ER to DNA or by the formation of inactive protein-DNA complex. Thus,
squelching the p160 coactivators, which are common essential
coactivators for ER action as well as CAR action, is a remaining possibility.
CAR Inhibits the ER-mediated Transactivation by Squelching the p160
Coactivators--
Both CAR and ER are activated by p160 coactivators,
so that competing for these proteins could explain mutual inhibition. To analyze whether CAR squelches the p160 coactivator for the ER
transcriptional activity in the cells, competition transfection experiments were performed. When GRIP-1 was cotransfected, the ER-mediated transcriptional activity was increased 2-3-fold (Fig. 6, lanes 3 and 4).
When increasing amounts of CAR were transfected, GRIP-1-mediated
transcriptional activation of the ER was progressively decreased (Fig.
6, lanes 5-7). Intriguingly, the reduction of GRIP-1-induced transcriptional enhancement was modulated by CAR ligands. The repression of GRIP-1-induced transactivation by CAR was
increased by TCPOBOP, whereas it was modestly decreased by androstenol
(compare lanes 10-12 and 15-17). TCPOBOP-bound
CAR efficiently blocked the GRIP-1-induced transcriptional activity mediated by ER, which suggests that competition for GRIP-1 may underlie
the CAR-mediated inhibition.
To test this possibility, increasing amounts of GRIP-1 were
cotransfected in the presence of agonist or antagonist of the CAR.
Repression of the ER-mediated transactivation by CAR was gradually
reversed by increasing amounts of GRIP-1 (Fig.
7). Consistent with a squelching
mechanism, transfection of GRIP-1 to the androstenol-treated cells
derepressed the ER transcriptional activity more efficiently than the
TCPOBOP-treated cells (compare lanes 3-8 and
9-14). Thus, increased or decreased interaction of GRIP-1
with CAR in the presence of TCPOBOP or androstenol, respectively,
correlates with increased or decreased inhibition of ER-mediated
transactivation. Similar results were obtained with SRC-1 as well as
GRIP-1 (data not shown). Our transfection data imply that CAR interacts
with p160 coactivators, such as GRIP-1 or SRC-1, in a ligand-modulating
manner and thus antagonizes the ER-mediated transcriptional activity by
competitively inhibiting the interaction of ER with p160
coactivators.
A CAR Mutant in Which the Interaction with GRIP-1 Was Abolished Did
Not Block the ER Transcriptional Activity--
To further test whether
CAR inhibits the ER-mediated transactivation by squelching the p160
coactivator, a mutation was introduced into the CAR AF-2 region. Proper
conformation of the C terminus of AF 2 domain in nuclear receptors is
essential for the transactivation function of nuclear receptors (29,
30). We deleted 8 amino acids from the C terminus of the CAR as
reported previously (25) (Fig.
8A). As with the wild type
CAR, this mutant CAR heterodimerized with RXR and bound to the CAR/RXR
binding site; however, transcriptional ability was completely abolished
(25). This mutant CAR has also been reported to be expressed at levels
similar to wild type (25). We first determined whether this mutant CAR
is able to interact with the p160 coactivators. When GST-GRIP-1 was
incubated with 35 S-labeled wild type CAR or GST-CAR with
35S-GRIP-1, specific interaction occurred, and ligands of
CAR modulated the interaction (Fig. 8, B and C),
consistent with the result previously published (16). In contrast, when
the GST-GRIP-1 was incubated with the CAR mutant or the GST mutant CAR
with 35S-labeled GRIP-1, the interaction was completely
abolished (Fig. 8, B and C).
To determine whether this mutant CAR represses the ER-mediated
transactivation, competition cotransfection assays were carried out.
Wild type CAR (10 ng) repressed the ER transactivation with or without
exogenous GRIP-1 expression (Fig. 8D, lanes 1,
2, 5, and 6), consistent with the
results presented above. In contrast, 50 or 250 ng of the transfected
mutant CAR expression plasmid did not repress the ER activity (Fig.
8D, lanes 1, 3, 4,
5, 7,and 8). These studies show that a
transcriptionally active CAR, which can interact with GRIP-1,
sequesters the GRIP-1 to repress ER-mediated transactivation.
The liver is a major target organ for estrogen action, so that the
liver-abundant xenobiotic orphan nuclear receptors, CAR, or SXR, have
the potential to modulate steroid hormone homeostasis (20). On one
level, these nuclear receptors may regulate estrogen action by virtue
of their induction of the cytochrome P-450 drug metabolizing enzymes
that alter hepatic metabolism of estrogens. On a second level, the
receptors may more directly affect estrogen action by cross-regulation.
These orphan receptors, for example, have been reported to interact
with the p160 coactivator, SRC-1, which is also an essential
transcriptional coactivator for ER action, so that the regulatory
pathways of the two receptor systems have components in common (17,
23). These observations led us to a hypothesis that the xenobiotic
orphan nuclear receptors may influence the ER-mediated signaling
pathway in hepatic cells. Our results demonstrated that SXR very
modestly repressed the ER-mediated transactivation, whereas the PPAR CAR-mediated Inhibitory Mechanism of Transcriptional
Activity of the ER--
Three potential mechanisms by which
CAR could repress ER-mediated transcriptional activity in the HepG2
cells are: 1) formation of an inactive complex with ER by interacting
directly with the ER, 2) competition for ER binding to the ERE, and 3)
squelching a coactivator of ER action, such as GRIP-1 or
SRC-1. To determine whether CAR-mediated transcriptional repression of
ER activity results from the inhibition of ER binding to the ERE site
and/or the formation of the inactive heterodimer with ER by blocking the dimerization interface or coactivator interacting domain, we
analyzed in vitro protein-DNA interaction studies using GST pull-down assays and gel mobility shift assay. Although CAR could interact with the ER in solution in GST pull-down assays, we were not
able to detect an interaction of CAR with the ER when the ER was bound
to the ERE. The first possibility of direct binding of CAR to the ER,
therefore, is unlikely to explain the cross-regulation.
CAR is promiscuous in binding to a variety of nuclear receptor-binding
sites (17, 31), so it was not too surprising that we found that
transfected CAR/RXR from HepG2 nuclear extracts, as well as purified
CAR/RXR, was able to bind to the consensus ERE. However, the binding
affinity of CAR for the ERE was much less than that of the ER, so that
a several hundred-fold excess of CAR did not affect binding of the ER
to the ERE in vitro, whereas ER competed efficiently for CAR
binding. Further, CAR ligands did not affect the binding of CAR to the
ERE in contrast to their effects on inhibition of ER action (data not
shown). It seems unlikely, therefore, that competition for binding to
the ERE can explain the inhibition of ER action by CAR. The third
possibility, the squelching of coactivators, seems the most likely possibility.
ER works with many other non-DNA-binding proteins in the regulation of
gene expression. These coregulators play crucial roles in the ER action
in the cells. They influence the magnitude of transcriptional
activation or repression and alter the dose-responsive profiles to the
ligands depending on the natures of the ligand (6). The involvement of
coregulators, coactivators such as SRC-1, GRIP-1, and corepressors,
such as SMRT (silencing mediator for
retinoid and thyroid hormone receptor), nuclear
receptor corepressor-1, in transcriptional regulation by the ER is now
well established (32, 33). Therefore, we tested the possibility that
CAR interferes with the ER transactivation by squelching the ER
coactivators, GRIP-1 and SRC-1. As shown recently (16), the interaction
of CAR with GRIP-1 and the transcriptional activity of CAR are
increased and decreased by CAR agonists and antagonists, respectively.
Similar modulation of the CAR-mediated inhibition of ER action by CAR ligands is consistent with competition for binding of these p160 coactivators between CAR and ER, resulting in squelching. Reversal of
the CAR effect by increasing amounts of GRIP-1 further supports this
possibility. The strongest evidence for this hypothesis is the loss in
inhibition of ER action by CAR if the C-terminal 8 amino acids of CAR
are deleted. This mutant retains the ability to bind to DNA (25) and is
translocated into the nucleus as the wild type CAR is (18). However,
transcriptional activity and the interaction with GRIP1 is lost, which
strongly suggests that competition for GRIP1, or possibly other
coactivators recruited by GRIP1, is the basis for the inhibition of ER
action by CAR.
Physiological Implications--
Modulation of estrogen action by
environmental compounds has been intensively studied recently. Much of
this interest has focused on weakly estrogenic compounds present in the
environment that can mediate increased estrogen action (34). However, a second mechanism for environmental modulation of estrogen action is
suggested by this study in which cross-regulation is shown in human
HepG2 cells between the ER and the xenobiotic orphan receptor CAR,
which is activated by ingestion of xenobiotics. Estrogen has been shown
to regulate transcriptional activity of hepatic genes, such as
vitellogenin (28), apolipoprotein A-I (1, 35), and low density
lipoprotein receptor (2). Therefore, we envision environmental agents
that activate CAR may influence ER-mediated transcriptional activity of
these genes by suppressing the ER activity in hepatic cells. Effects on
the genes affecting lipid metabolism are interesting because functional
cross-talk between xenobiotic metabolism and lipid metabolism has been
implicated in recent studies (36). Because of their promiscuous binding to DNA and ligands, functional cross-talk between CAR and other xenobiotic orphan nuclear receptors, such as PXR, SXR, and PPAR
was
examined in HepG2 cells. Of these receptors, CAR substantially
inhibited ER-mediated transcriptional activity of the vitellogenin B1
promoter as well as a synthetic estrogen responsive element
(ERE)-containing promoter. Treatment with an agonist of CAR,
1,4-bis-(2-(3,5-dichloropyridoxyl))benzene, potentiated CAR-mediated
transcriptional repression. In contrast, an antagonist of CAR,
androstenol, alleviated the repression effect. Although CAR interacted
with the ER in solution, CAR did not interact with the ER bound to the
ERE. CAR/retinoid X receptor bound to the ERE but with much lower
affinity than ER. Incremental amounts of CAR elicited a progressive
reduction of the ER activity induced by the p160 coactivator
glucocorticoid receptor interacting protein 1 (GRIP-1). In turn,
increasing amounts of GRIP-1 progressively reversed the depression of
ER activity by CAR. An agonist or antagonist of CAR potentiated or
alleviated, respectively, the CAR-mediated repression of the
GRIP-1-enhanced ER activity, which is consistent with the ability of
theses ligands to increase or decrease, respectively, the interaction
of CAR with GRIP-1. A CAR mutant that did not interact with GRIP-1 did
not inhibit ER-mediated transactivation. Our data demonstrate that
xenobiotic nuclear receptor CAR antagonizes ER-mediated transcriptional
activity by squelching limiting amounts of p160 coactivator and imply
that xenobiotics may influence ER function of female reproductive
physiology, cell differentiation, tumorigenesis, and lipid metabolism.
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INTRODUCTION
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
have been shown to bind
the ERE with high affinity and inhibit gene expression, perhaps by
competing with the ER for binding to the ERE (7, 8). The xenobiotic
nuclear receptor, aromatic hydrocarbon receptor, has also been shown to
modulate ER activity in human breast and hepatic cell lines (9, 10).
Progesterone receptor isoforms A and B have been shown to act as potent
repressors for ER activity by interfering with the interaction of ER
with the transcriptional machinery (11). Rather than inhibiting ER
activity, polypeptide growth factors such as epidermal growth factor
and insulin-like growth factor have been shown to stimulate ER-mediated transcription in an E2-independent manner (12).
, in modulating ER activity. The liver
is the major organ that metabolizes steroids and one of the target
organs for estrogen action in the body. ER
as well as these
liver-enriched orphan receptors and their heterodimeric partner RXR are
all expressed in the liver (20). Recent studies showed that the p160
coactivators, SRC-1, GRIP-1, and SRC-3, are expressed in the liver (21,
22) and play a role in transcriptional activation mediated by the
orphan receptors, CAR and SXR (16, 23). Therefore, we examined whether
biological cross-talk between the ER and these xenobiotic nuclear
receptors occurred in the hepatic HepG2 cell line. We found that CAR
significantly inhibited ER-mediated transactivation of the vitellogenin
B1 promoter, as well as a synthetic ERE-driven promoter by a mechanism
in which CAR squelches limiting amounts of p160 coactivators, such as
SRC-1 and GRIP-1, which are essential for ER action.
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EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
, rosiglitazone (BRL49653), was obtained
from Glaxo-SmithKline. The mammalian expression plasmid pCDNA3CAR
and the bacterial expression plasmids pETCAR and pGEX2TK-CAR have been
described previously (16, 24). A CAR mutant in which 8 amino acids were
deleted from the C terminus of the mouse wild type CAR (25) was
generated by PCR-mediated mutagenesis. The deletion mutation of the C
terminus of the CAR vector was confirmed by sequencing, and the
mammalian expression plasmid, pCDNA3 CAR mutant, was generated by
substituting the EcoNI/EcoRI fragment of the
mutant CAR vector for the corresponding fragment in the wild type CAR
vector. For expression of the GST-CAR or GST-CAR mutant, a
BamHI/EcoRI fragment containing the CAR cDNA was inserted into pGEX2TK (Pharmacia Corp.) digested with the same
enzymes. The mammalian expression plasmids pCMXSXR and pCMXRXR
were
obtained from R. Evans, mammalian expression plasmids for PPAR
were
from C. K. Glass and V. K. Chartterjee, the GST ERLBD containing the D, E, and F domains of the ER
were from B. Katzenellenbogen, and plasmids CMVER
, 4ERE-tk-luciferase, and
vitellogenin-luciferase were from D. Shapiro. Coactivator expression
plasmids for SRC-1 and GRIP-1 were obtained from B. W. O'Mally
and M. R. Stallcup, respectively.
were added to each well. In some experiments, 10 nM of moxestrol, 5 µM of TCPOBOP, 4 µM of androstenol, 10 µM of rifampicin, and 1 µM of BRL49653, which are ligands for the receptors,
ER, CAR, SXR, and PPAR
, respectively, were added. The cells were
incubated for 16-24 h after transfection, fresh medium containing the
ligands was added, and the cells were incubated an additional 24 h. For coactivator analyses, the indicated amounts of expression
plasmids for SRC-1 or GRIP-1 were added to the DNA mixture and
processed as described above. Dual luciferase activities were measured
as described by the manufacturer's protocol (Promega). Firefly
luciferase activities were normalized to the Renilla
luciferase values for each sample.
protein, a
generous gift from A. Nardulli, was expressed and purified from Sf9 cells infected with recombinant vaculovirus provided by J. Kadonaga and W. L. Kraus. Gel mobility shift assays were carried out as described (24, 26). Briefly, the DNA probe was a
32P-labeled oligonucleotide containing the consensus ERE
(AGGTCAN3TGACCT) and 5,000-10,000 cpm were added to each
reaction. Various amounts of ER or CAR/RXR were added to the reaction
buffer (30 mM KCl, 1 mM MgCl2, 15 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.9, 0.2 mM EDTA, 10%
glycerol, 4 mM dithiothreitol, and 50 µM
ZnCl2) in the presence of nonspecific carrier DNA such as
poly(dI-dC) or salmon sperm/herring sperm DNA in a final volume of 20 µl. After 15 min of incubation at room temperature, the resulting
protein-DNA complex was fractionated on a nondenaturing acrylamide gel.
For antibody supershift assays, 0.4-2 µg of antibodies were added
after the incubation, and the reactions were incubated for an
additional 5 min and processed as described above. Polyclonal antibody
for CAR was made in a rabbit against purified mouse
His6-tagged CAR at the Immunological Center at the
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign as described (24).
Antibodies for the ER
and RXR were purchased from Santa Cruz Biotechnology.
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RESULTS
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
, transient
transfection experiments were performed in HepG2 cells. A human ER
mammalian expression plasmid was cotransfected with expression plasmids
of the orphan nuclear receptor and a synthetic 4ERE-tk-luciferase
reporter plasmid. We used moxestrol as a ligand for the ER in HepG2
cells because moxestrol is resistant to metabolism in hepatic cells. As
shown in Fig. 1A, treatment with 10 nM moxestrol induced the ER-mediated 4ERE-tk
luciferase activity over 500-fold when ER and CAR expression plasmids
were cotransfected. TCPOBOP, an agonist for CAR, did not increase
luciferase activity and thus is not a ligand for ER
in this assay
system, nor does CAR activate the ERE-containing promoter. Treatment
with TCPOBOP potently inhibited the moxestrol dependent ER-mediated transactivation over 70% (Fig. 1A). In contrast, activation
of SXR by rifampicin (10 µM) only modestly inhibited
ER-mediated transactivation by 25% (Fig. 1B), and
activation of PPAR
by BRL49653 (1 µM) did not affect
ER-mediated transcriptional activity (Fig. 1C). Our results
show that, of these xenobiotic receptors, CAR significantly inhibits
luciferase reporter activity induced by moxestrol-activated ER.

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Fig. 1.
Functional cross-talk between the ER and
xenobiotic orphan nuclear receptors, CAR, SXR, and
PPAR
. HepG2 cells were transfected with 250 ng of
4ERE-tk-luciferase vector, 10 ng of pRLSV40 for the internal control
for transfection efficiency, and 2 ng of CMV-ER
in the presence of
10 ng of pCDNA3-CAR (A), pCMX-SXR (B), or
pSG5-PPAR
(C). Ligands were added for 20 h after
transfection as indicated: 10 nM of moxestrol
(MOX) for ER, 5 µM of TCPOBOP (TCP)
for CAR, 10 µM of rifampicin (Rif) for SXR, or
1 µM of BRL49653 (BRL) for PPAR
. The cells
were harvested for dual luciferase assays. The values for firefly
luciferase were normalized by dividing by Renilla luciferase
values. The standard errors of the mean were calculated from 12 independent determinations.

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Fig. 2.
Agonistic or antagonistic ligands of CAR,
TCPOBOP, or androstenol, respectively, modulate CAR-mediated ER
transcriptional repression. HepG2 cells were cotransfected with
250 ng of 4ERE-tk-luciferase, 10 ng of pRLSV40, 2 ng of CMV-ER
, and
increasing amounts (10, 50, and 250 ng) of pCDNA3-CAR. Transfected
cells were treated with vehicle (ETOH), 5 µM
TCPOBOP (TCP), or 4 µM androstenol
(AS) for 20 h as indicated. The cells were harvested
for dual luciferase assays. The values for firefly luciferase were
normalized by dividing by the Renilla luciferase values. The
standard errors of the mean are indicated for six independent
determinations. MOX, moxestrol.
596/+14) from
the 5'-flanking region of the Xenopus vitellogenin B1
genomic clone and contains a functional ERE in this 610-bp fragment
(28). HepG2 cells were cotransfected with vitellogenin-luciferase
reporter and ER expression plasmids either in the presence or absence
of CAR expression plasmids. Moxestrol led to a dramatic increase in
ER-mediated transactivation of the vitellogenin-luciferase reporter
activity (Fig. 3, lanes 1,
2, 5, and 6). Treatment of TCPOBOP
alone did not induce ER-mediated transactivation (lanes 3 and 7) regardless of the presence of endogenous or
exogenously transfected CAR. The combined treatment of moxestrol and
TCPOBOP repressed the moxestrol-dependent ER-mediated
transactivation of the vitellogenin B1 promoter (lanes 2,
4, 6, and 8). An agonistic ligand for
the CAR, TCPOBOP, potentiated the inhibitory effect mediated by either
endogenous CAR or transfected CAR. When CAR was exogenously
transfected, the CAR-mediated transcriptional repression of ER
transactivation was more pronounced. In contrast, increasing amounts of
transfected SXR or PPAR
expression plasmid did not elicit detectable
changes in the ER-mediated transcriptional activity on the vitellogenin
B1 promoter (data not shown). These results demonstrate that CAR
suppresses the ER-mediated transcriptional activity in the
ERE-containing vitellogenin B1 promoter as well as synthetic ERE
promoter in HepG2 cells.

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Fig. 3.
CAR inhibits ER-mediated transcriptional
activity of the vitellogenin promoter. HepG2 cells were
transfected with 500 ng of a vector containing vitellogenin promoter
fused to the luciferase reporter gene (vitellogenin-luciferase), 10 ng
of pRLSV40, or 2 ng of CMV-ER
, either in the presence or the absence
of 10 ng of pCDNA3-CAR. The ligands were added for 24 h after
transfection as indicated. The values for firefly luciferase were
normalized by dividing by the Renilla luciferase values. The
standard errors of the mean were calculated from nine independent
determinations from three transfection experiments. MOX, moxestrol;
TCP, TCPOBOP.
in Vitro--
To study the mechanism by
which CAR could antagonize ER-mediated transactivation, GST pull-down
experiments were carried out to examine whether ER physically interacts
with CAR in vitro. The GST-ER LBD, which contains the D, E,
and F domains of the ER
, was incubated with 35S-labeled
CAR in the presence of ethanol, E2, TCPOBOP, or combined treatment of E2 and TCPOBOP. A strong interaction was
observed between the GST-ERLBD and 35S-labeled CAR (Fig.
4A). Likewise, interaction
between 35S-labeled full-length ER and GST-CAR was observed
(Fig. 4B). Addition of ligands for the ER or CAR had little
effect on the interaction (Fig. 4). These results demonstrate that CAR
interacts with ER
in vitro in a ligand-independent
manner. These GST pull-down assays suggest the possibility that CAR may
inhibit the ER-mediated signaling pathway by interacting with ER to
form a functionally inactive complex, perhaps by blocking the
coactivator interacting domain of ER and/or blocking the dimerization
interface of ER and binding to the ERE.

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Fig. 4.
ER interacts with CAR in a ligand-independent
manner. GST-ERLBD (A), GST-CAR (B), or GST
(A and B) as a negative control for pull-down
assays was purified and incubated with the 35S-labeled
nuclear receptors CAR and ER
in the presence or the absence of the
ligands as indicated. After extensive washing, the labeled proteins
bound to the GST fusion proteins were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and
visualized by autoradiography. In the input lane, 25% of the amount of
the TNT reaction used in each pull-down reaction is shown. Consistent
results were obtained from four independent pull-down assays.
TCP, TCPOBOP.
has been shown to
repress the ER activity by binding to the ERE site in
E2-responsive genes (7, 8, 28). Likewise, CAR/RXR could
potentially interfere with ER transcriptional activity by inhibiting ER
binding to the ERE. To examine this possibility, gel mobility shift
assays were carried out using purified recombinant proteins from
E. coli or Sf9 insect cells. When
32P-labeled oligonucleotides containing the consensus ERE
sequence were incubated with purified human ER
, one major
protein-DNA complex was formed (Fig.
5A, lane 1). This
major protein-DNA complex was supershifted by the ER-specific antibody
(lane 3). The addition of purified CAR/RXR to this binding
reaction resulted in an additional more rapidly migrating protein-DNA
complex (lane 2). Antibody for ER
did not supershift this
band (lane 3), but the band disappeared when antibody for
CAR or RXR was added to the reaction (lanes 4 and
6). Preimmune serum from the rabbit in which polyclonal antibody was raised against CAR was used as a negative control for
experiment, and the addition of preimmune serum did not supershift the
band (lane 5). These experiments demonstrate that purified CAR/RXR proteins can bind to the ERE sequence. To further examine whether CAR/RXR expressed in transfected HepG2 cells can also bind to
the ERE site, the gel mobility shift assay was carried out using HepG2
nuclear extracts. CAR/RXR from the transfected HepG2 cells was able to
bind to the ERE, and the complex was antibody supershifted by antibody
of CAR/RXR, confirming that CAR/RXR can bind to the consensus ERE
in vitro (data not shown).

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[in a new window]
Fig. 5.
CAR/RXR can bind to the ERE, but CAR in
100-fold excess relative to ER does not interact with the ER bound to
the ERE and does not inhibit ER binding to the ERE. A,
32P-labeled consensus ERE oligonucleotide (5,000-10,000
cpm/reaction) was incubated with 5 fmol of purified ER
and/or 500 fmol of CAR/RXR. After incubation, antibodies for ER, CAR, RXR, and
preimmune serum (PIS) were added and incubated an additional 5 min and
analyzed by native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The
CAR-RXR-ERE complex and the antibody (Ab)-supershifted
complex are indicated by arrows. B,
32P-labeled consensus ERE probe was incubated with 5 fmol
of purified ER and increasing amounts (100-500 fmol) of purified
CAR/RXR (lanes 2 and 3). In turn, a limited
amount of the labeled ERE was incubated with 500 fmol of purified
CAR/RXR and increasing amounts (2.5-20 fmol) of purified ER
(lanes 4-7). After incubation, the complexes were analyzed
by native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The protein-DNA complexes
are indicated by arrows. Reproducible results were obtained
from four independent gel mobility shift assays.

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Fig. 6.
CAR inhibits GRIP-1-enhanced ER
transcriptional activity. HepG2 cells were cotransfected with 250 ng of 4ERE-tk-luciferase, 10 ng of pRLSV40, 2 ng of CMVER
, 50 ng of
pSG5-GRIP-1, and increasing amounts of CAR (0, 10, 50, and 250 ng). The
ligands were added for 20 h as indicated: 10 nM of
moxestrol, 5 µM of TCPOBOP, and 4 µM of
androstenol. The standard errors of the mean were calculated from six
independent determinations. MOX, moxestrol; TCP,
TCPOBOP; AS, androstenol.

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Fig. 7.
GRIP-1 reverses the CAR-mediated inhibition
of ER transactivation. HepG2 cells were cotransfected with 250 ng
of 4EREtk-luciferase, 10 ng of pRLSV40, 2 ng of CMV-ER
, 50 ng of
pCDNA3-CAR, and increasing doses of pSG5-GRIP-1 (0, 5, 20, 100, and
500 ng). The ligands were added for 20 h as indicated: 10 nM of moxestrol, 5 µM of TCPOBOP, and 4 µM of androstenol. The standard errors of the mean are
indicated for six independent determinations. MOX,
moxestrol; TCP, TCPOBOP; AS, androstenol.

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[in a new window]
Fig. 8.
A CAR mutant that does not interact with
GRIP-1 does not inhibit the ER-mediated transactivation. A CAR
mutant was generated by deletion of 8 amino acids from the C terminus
(A). GST-GRIP1 (B) and GST-CAR (C)
with GST as a negative control for pull-down assays were purified and
incubated with the 35S-labeled proteins, CAR, CAR mutant,
or GRIP-1, in the presence of ligands as indicated. After washing, the
labeled proteins bound to the GST fusion proteins were analyzed by
SDS-PAGE and visualized by autoradiography. Consistent results were
obtained from two independent pull-down assays. D, HepG2
cells were transfected with 4ERE-tk luciferase, CMV-ER
,
pCDNA3-wild type CAR (10 ng), or pCDNA3-mutated CAR (50 and 250 ng) either in the presence or the absence of pSG5-GRIP-1 (50 ng). The
values for firefly luciferase were normalized by dividing by the
Renilla luciferase values. The standard errors of the mean
are calculated from six independent determinations.
![]()
DISCUSSION
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
did not repress the ER-mediated transactivation in transfected human
hepatic HepG2 cells. In contrast, cotransfection of increasing amounts
of a CAR expression plasmid resulted in a substantial reduction of ER
transactivation. Even without treatment with an agonistic ligand for
CAR, TCPOBOP, CAR inhibited ER transcriptional activity,
consistent with the constitutive activity of CAR (14). The inhibition
of ER-mediated transactivation by CAR was increased by a CAR agonist, TCPOBOP (17), and was decreased by a CAR antagonist, androstenol. These
results demonstrate that there is regulatory cross-talk between CAR and
the ER. The modulation of the effect by CAR ligands indicates that the
cross-talk is related to the transcriptional activity of CAR.
, in
response to endogenous and exogenous chemicals has been documented (23). This suggests that a network of regulation of cellular activity
by xenobiotics may impinge on ER function in the liver. Such
cross-regulation may occur in other tissues as well. For example, we
found that in addition to ER
, xenobiotic nuclear receptors, CAR,
SXR, PPAR
, and their heterodimeric partner RXR, are differentially
expressed in five human breast cancer cell lines, and cross-regulation
between the ER and the xenobiotic receptors
occurs.2 Thus, cross-talk
studies from HepG2 cells as well as breast cancer cells imply the
physiological relevance of receptor cross-talk between CAR and the ER
in estrogen-responsive tissues such as female reproductive cells or
hepatic cells. In conclusion, we demonstrate that in hepatic cells CAR
inhibits ER signaling, which plays a crucial role in female
reproductive physiology, cell growth, cell differentiation, and lipid
metabolism in the cells. Such interactions may also occur in
reproductive tissues.
| |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
|---|
We are grateful to Drs. A. Nardulli, D. Shapiro, B. Kazenellenbogen, R. Evans, C. K. Glass, V. K. Chartterjee, J. Kadonaga, W. L. Kraus, B. O'Mally, and M. Stallcup for providing materials for this study. We also thank Dr. B. Kemper for critical comments on this work.
| |
FOOTNOTES |
|---|
* This work was supported by a grant from Penny Severns Breast and Cervical Cancer Research Fund from Illinois Department of Public Health.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.
These two authors contributed equally to this study.
§ Present address: Dept. of Microbiological Engineering, Jinju National University, Gyeongsangnam-Do Jinju-City, Chilam-Dong 150, Korea.
¶ To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: 217-333-6317; Fax: 217x-333-1133; E-mail: jongsook@uiuc.edu.
Published, JBC Papers in Press, July 11, 2002, DOI 10.1074/jbc.M205239200
2 J. K. Kemper, G. Min, and X. Xia, unpublished data.
| |
ABBREVIATIONS |
|---|
The abbreviations used are: ER, estrogen receptor; ERE, estrogen responsive element; CAR, constitutively activated androstane receptor; GRIP, glucocorticoid receptor interacting protein; SRC, steroid hormone receptor coactivator; TCPOBOP, 1,4-bis-(2-(3,5-dichloropyridoxyl))benzene; RXR, retinoid X receptor; SXR, steroid and xenobiotic sensor receptor; PPAR, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor; LBD, ligand-binding domin; GST, glutathione S-transferase.
| |
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