![]()
|
|
||||||||
J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 282, Issue 16, 11687-11695, April 20, 2007
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||


1












From the
Department of Internal Medicine, Metabolism and Endocrinology, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences and
Center for Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8575, Japan
Received for publication, December 29, 2006
| ABSTRACT |
|---|
|
|
|---|
(LXR
), a dominant activator of SREBP-1c expression. Activation of PKA repressed LXR-induced SREBP-1c expression both in rat primary hepatocytes and mouse livers. Promoter analyses revealed that the LXR
-binding site in the SREBP-1c promoter is responsible for PKA inhibitory effect on SREBP-1c transcription. In vitro and in vivo PKA directly phosphorylated LXR
, and the two consensus PKA target sites (195, 196 serines and 290, 291 serines) in its ligand binding/heterodimerization domain were crucial for the inhibition of LXR signaling. PKA phosphorylation of LXR
caused impaired DNA binding activity by preventing LXR
/RXR dimerization and decreased its transcription activity by inhibiting recruitment of coactivator SCR-1 and enhancing recruitment of corepressor NcoR1. These results indicate that LXR
is regulated not only by oxysterol derivatives but also by PKA-mediated phosphorylation, which suggests that nutritional regulation of SREBP-1c and lipogenesis could be regulated at least partially through modulation of LXR. | INTRODUCTION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
To understand the molecular mechanism of nutritional regulation of SREBP-1c expression, the SREBP-1c gene promoter has been extensively studied. In the proximal region of the mouse SREBP-1c promoter, Sp1, NF-Y, USF, SREBP, and LXR-binding sites have been identified (79). It has been observed that insulin (10) and glucose (11, 12) are factors that induce hepatic SREBP-1c in vivo and in vitro, although precise mechanisms are yet to be elucidated. Adenoviral overexpression in rat primary hepatocytes suggested that the signal transducer, Akt, could be a potential regulator of SREBP-1c transcription (13).
Liver X receptors (LXR) belong to a nuclear receptor superfamily. The LXR subfamily consists of two members, LXR
and LXR
, which are activated by oxysterols (14). The expression pattern of LXR
is restricted mainly to liver, adipocytes, small intestine, and macrophages, whereas LXR
is expressed ubiquitously. Although early reports revealed involvement of LXRs in cholesterol homeostasis (15, 16), recent studies suggest that LXR negatively regulates gluconeogenesis (17) and inflammatory responses (18, 19). While investigating the pharmacological effect of LXR in rodent models, it has been observed that LXR ligands are protective against the development of atherosclerotic lesions (20) and ameliorates conditions of high blood glucose and impaired glucose tolerance (21). LXRs directly bind the cis element on the SREBP-1c promoter as heterodimers with RXR, leading to transcriptional activation (8). Several studies have established LXRs as dominant activators of SREBP-1c expression. LXR
/
double knock-out mice revealed dramatically reduced expression of SREBP-1c (9). We have used an expression cloning strategy to show that LXRs are the primary activators of the SREBP-1c promoter (8). Polyunsaturated fatty acids are the only known dietary lipid capable of negatively regulating hepatic SREBP-1c expression and lipogenesis (22). A portion of these effects is mediated at the transcriptional level through repression of LXR activity (23).
Considering that hepatic SREBP-1c expression is dominated by LXRs and eliminated by fasting, it is probable that there is a mechanism by which LXR mediates the repressed SREBP-1c expression during fasting. Consistently, it has been reported that glucagons and its signal mediator, cAMP, suppresses SREBP-1c in rat primary hepatocytes (24). Protein kinase A (PKA) is a cAMP-dependent protein kinase that consists of both a catalytic and regulatory subunit and regulates numerous cellular functions in eukaryotic cells by phosphorylating target proteins. In regard to energy metabolism, PKA is subordinated to glucagon and adrenalin and, therefore, is classically recognized as a fasting signal to activate gluconeogenesis and
-oxidation and to oppose triglycerides synthesis and glucose utilization. It is known that several nuclear receptors (e.g. estrogen receptor, retinoic acid receptor, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor, and hepatocyte nuclear factor-4
) are phosphorylated by PKA leading to modification of their trans activities via diverse mechanism (2528). In the current study we investigated effects of cAMP/PKA on the SREBP-1c expression and LXR signaling system.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
, anti-RXR, and anti-SREBP-1 antibodies were purchased from Santa Cruz Biotechnology Inc. (Santa Cruz, CA). Anti-CREB and anti-phospho-CREB (Ser-133) antibodies were purchased from Cell Signaling Technology Inc. (Beverly, MA). Anti-His 5 antibody was purchased from Qiagen Inc. Anti-HA and anti-Myc antibodies were purchased from Roche Applied Science. Anti-FLAG antibody was purchased from Promega (Madison, WI). Dibutyryl-cAMP was purchased from Promega. T0901317 as synthetic LXR ligand was purchased from WAKO. AnimalsMale mice (C57BL/6J) were obtained from CLEA Japan (Tokyo, Japan). For fasting and refeeding, mice were fasted for 24 h and then fed a high sucrose/low fat diet for 12 h.
Isolation and Culture of HepatocytesPrimary hepatocytes were isolated form male Sprague-Dawley rats (200300 g) (CLEA Japan). Cell were resuspended in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium containing penicillin and streptomycin supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum before being seeded on 100-mm collagen-coated dishes at 2 x 106 cells/dish. After incubation for 4 h to allow attachment, medium was replaced, and experiments were performed.
Northern BlottingTotal RNA from mouse liver and rat primary hepatocytes was isolated as described previously (29). The cDNA probes for mouse SREBP-1, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein PO (36B4), ABCA1, and LXR
were prepared as previously described (8, 29, 30).
PlasmidsA series of mouse SREBP-1c promoter linked to pGL2 basic were previously described (7). LXRE-enhancer construct linked to pGL2 promoter vector was previously described (8). Human ABCA1 promoter (919 to +239) linked to pGL3 basic were previously described (30). Expression vector for Gal4-DBD-LXR
ligand binding domain (LBD) fusion protein and Gal4 RE Luc vector were previously described (8). Expression vectors for mouse LXR
(wild type, 195A 196A and 290A 291A) were constructed in pcDNA3.1(+). Expression vector for PKA c subunit was constructed in pFA. Expression vector for V5-tagged PKA regulatory subunit (dominant negative form) was constructed in pcDNA3.1() according to a previous report for the mutated form of the regulatory type 1 subunit of PKA (31). The expression vector for HA-tagged human LXR
was constructed in pcDNA3. Expression vectors for FLAG-tagged wild type human RXR and FLAG-tagged mutant RXR in which the serine 27 residue was substituted to alanine were constructed in pcDNA3.1(+). Expression vectors for histidine-tagged recombinant mouse LXR
(full-length, amino acids 1163, 162326, and 325445) were constructed in pET28a(+). The expression vector for glutathione S-transferase fusion protein was constructed in pGEX4T-2. For the mammalian two-hybrid system, the mouse LXR
-coding region was ligated into pACT. Mouse SRC-1 nuclear receptor interaction domain (amino acids 568779) and mouse NcoR1 nuclear receptor interaction domain (amino acids 19442453) were ligated into pM. For in vitro translation, SRC-1 nuclear receptor interaction domain (NID; amino acids 576779) was ligated into pcDNA3.1(+). The expression vector for FLAG-tagged CBP was previously described. The expression vector for HA-tagged mouse CREB was constructed in pcDNA3.
Transfections and Luciferase Assay293 cells and 293T cells were grown in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium containing penicillin and streptomycin supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum at 37 °C in 24-well plate overnight before transfection. Cells were transfected with reporter vector, expression vector using FuGENE 6. Total amounts of DNA were adjusted to 0.5 µg/well using empty vector. After 24 h of incubation, the amounts of firefly luciferase activity in transfectants were measured. Firefly luciferase activity was normalized by the amounts of Renilla luciferase activity expressed from CMV or SV40 promoter linked-Renilla luciferase unless otherwise indicated.
In Vitro Kinase AssayHistidine-tagged recombinant mouse LXR
proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli (BL21, DE3) and purified using standard techniques and purification kit Mag Extractor (TOYOBO) according to the manufacturer's protocol. Briefly, bacterial culture containing kanamycin were grown at 37 °C. After induction of recombinant proteins for 23 h, cells were resuspended in lysis buffer (6 M guanidine hydrochloride, 5 M NaCl (pH 8.0)) and lysed by sonication. The centrifuged supernatant was mixed for 30 min at room temperature on a rotator with magnetic nickel beads. Protein-absorbed beads were washed with lysis buffer, and recombinant LXR
proteins were eluted with elution buffer. After dialysis to exclude guanidine, the concentration and size of histidine-tagged proteins were estimated by SDS-PAGE followed by Coomassie Blue staining and immunoblotting using a known quantity of molecular weight standards. The purified proteins were stored at 80 °C until experiments were performed.
Bovine purified PKA catalytic subunit was purchased from Promega. PKA c subunit, histidine-tagged LXR
, and [
-32P]ATP were mixed in PKA buffer (50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 10 mM NaCl, 10 mM MgCl2, 1 mM DTT) and incubated for 45 min at 30 °C. Samples were analyzed by SDS-PAGE, and phosphorylation was visualized by autoradiography. Quantity of histidine-tagged protein was confirmed by immunoblotting using anti-His 5 antibody. Histone H1 protein (Calbiochem) was used as positive control in kinase assays.
In Vivo Kinase AssayFor in vivo kinase assay, COS7 cells prepared in 100-mm collagen-coated dishes at 1 x 106 cells/dish were transfected with control or expression vector for HA-tagged human LXR
vectors. After transfection, the cells were starved in phosphate-deficient medium for 12 h and then incubated for 2 h in the same medium containing 500 µCi/ml [32P]orthophosphate. Cells were treated with PKA activators (forskolin 10 µM, dibutyryl-cAMP 1 mM, isobutylmethylxanthine 1 mM) for 30 min before harvesting.
At the end of the labeling period the cells were washed ice-cold phosphate-buffered saline, harvested, and lysed on ice. Protein samples were extracted in lysis buffer mentioned elsewhere and centrifuged at 15,000 rpm 4 °C for 10 min. Supernatants were subjected to immunoprecipitation assay used with anti HA antibody (Roche Applied Science) as previously described. The immunocomplex were eluted in sample buffer, resolved by SDS-PAGE (8% gel), visualized with autoradiography, and immunoblotted.
Electrophoretic Mobility Shift AssayNuclear extracts were prepared from livers as previously described (32). RXR protein was generated from expression vector using a coupled in vitro reticulocyte transcription/translation system (Promega). Double-stranded oligonucleotides of LXR response element in SREBP-1c promoter using in EMSA were prepared as previously described. In vitro synthetic protein lysate or nuclear extracts (
1 µg) were incubated. DNA-protein complex were resolved on a 4% polyacrylamide gel.
Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) AssayThe ChIP assay was conducted with a chromatin immunoprecipitation kit (Upstate%20Biotechnology">Upstate Biotechnology, Lake Placid, NY). After H2.35 cells were treated with PKA activators (10 µM forskolin, 100 µM dibutyryl-cAMP) or vehicle under T0901317 (10 µM) for 1 h at 37 °C, H2.35 cells were cross-linked for 10 min by adding formaldehyde directly to culture medium to a final concentration of 1%. Cross-linked cells were washed with ice-cold phosphate-buffered saline containing protease inhibitors, scraped, pelleted, resuspended in 200 µl of SDS lysis buffer (1% SDS, 10 mM EDTA, 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0)) per 1 x 106 cells and incubated for 10 min on ice. The lysates were then sonicated for 30 s each by sonicator (Sonifer 250, Branson) with 20% duty cycle and 10% output power. The samples were on ice for 1 min between the cycles. After sonication the samples were centrifuged, and supernatant was diluted 10-fold in ChIP dilution buffer containing protease inhibitors. 2-ml aliquots were precleared with 75 µl of a 50% slurry of salmon sperm DNA/protein A-Sepharose for 30 min at 4 °C and then incubated overnight with 3 µg of anti-RXR antibody or control IgG. Antibody-protein-DNA complexes were immunoprecipitated with 60 µl of protein A. After intensive washing, pellets were eluted by freshly prepared elution buffer (1% SDS, 0.1 M NaHCO3). Formaldehyde cross-linking was reversed by overnight incubation at 65 °C after adding 20 µl of 5 M NaCl. Samples were purified with phenol:chloroform:isoamyl alcohol and precipitated with ethanol. DNA pellets were dissolved with Tris-EDTA buffer and used as templates in PCR. Eight µl of 20 µl of DNA solution was used for PCR amplification (1st step of 95 °C for 3 min (one cycle), 2nd step of 94 °C for 1 min, 62.1 °C for 30 s, 72 °C for 1 min (25 cycles)). ChIP primers were 5'-GAACCAGCGGTGGGAACACAGAGC-3' and 5'-GACGGCGGCAGCTCGGGTTTCTC.
Immunoblotting and ImmunoprecipitationCOS7 cells were seeded on 100-mm dishes and transfected with the expression vectors. After incubation for 48 h, dbcAMP (100 µM), forskolin (10 µM), and isobutylmethylxanthine (100 µM) were added into medium for 30 min, and then cells were harvested. Protein lysate was extracted in lysis buffer (25 mM HEPES (pH 7.9), 50 mM KCl, 6% glycerol, 5 mM MgCl2, 0.5% Triton X-100, 1 mM DTT, 50 mM NaF, 40 mM
-glycerophosphate, 25 mM sodium pyrophosphate, protease inhibitor mixture (Roche Applied Science)) on ice 20 min and centrifuge at 15,000 rpm at 4 °C for 10 min. Supernatants were subjected to immunoprecipitation assay as previously described (29).
GST Pulldown AssayGST and GST-LXR
proteins were prepared using standard techniques according to the manufacturer's protocol. Briefly, E. coli (BL21, DE3) transformed with the GST or GST-LXR
expression vector were incubated before induction at room temperature for 4 h with 0.4 mM isopropyl 1-thio-
-D-galactopyranoside. The cells were harvested by centrifugation and suspended in buffer A (25 mM HEPES (pH 7.9), 50 mM KCl, 6% glycerol, 5 mM EDTA, 5 mM MgCl2, 0.5% Triton X-100, protease inhibitor mixture, 1 mM DTT). The cells were lysed by sonication, and cellular debris was removed by centrifugation at 15,000 rpm at 4 °C for 10 min. Recombinant GST or GST-LXR
proteins were purified by glutathione-Sepharose beads according to the manufacturer's protocol (Amersham Biosciences). GST fusion proteins were eluted (50 mM Tris HCl (pH 8.0), 50 mM NaCl, 10 mM glutathione, protease inhibitor mixture, 1 mM DTT). Amounts and sizes of GST or GST-LXR
proteins were estimated by SDS-PAGE followed by Coomassie Blue staining and immunoblotting using anti-LXR antibody. GST or GST-LXR
and the PKA c subunit or equal amounts of bovine serum albumin were mixed in PKA buffer (50 mM Tris HCl (pH 7.5), 10 mM NaCl, 10 mM MgCl2, 1 mM DTT, 50 mM NaF, 20 mM
-glycerophosphate) and incubated for 45 min at 30 °C. After adding glutathione beads and 35S-radiolabeled SRC-1 nuclear receptor interaction domain (amino acids 576779) synthesized in vitro to samples and incubation for 2 h at 4 °C, beads were washed 3 times with ice-cold phosphate-buffered saline containing 0.1% Triton X-100. Proteins bound to beads were eluted with elution buffer (50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 50 mM glutathione), resolved by SDS-PAGE, and visualized autoradiography.
| RESULTS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
|
|
and the PKA catalytic subunit for PKA activation were transfected into HepG2 cells (Fig. 3A). PKA expression did not affect the basal level of SREPB-1c promoter activity in HepG2 cells. Meanwhile, PKA co-expression strongly suppressed LXR
-mediated activation of SREBP-1c promoter. This was only observed in LXRE-containing promoters (2.6 kilobase pairs and 550 bp). The shorter construct lacking LXREs (90 bp) did not show LXR activation or PKA inhibition. Thus, the inhibitory effect of PKA on SREBP-1c promoter was conceivably mediated through LXREs. This was supported by the LXRE enhancer construct assays, demonstrating that endogenous PKA activation by forskolin, an adenylate cyclase activator, dose-dependently inhibited LXRE enhancer activity induced by the LXR ligand, and this inhibitory effect was abolished by co-expression of the PKA regulatory subunit dominant negative form (Fig. 3B). The mechanism against the PKA suppression of LXR activity was further explored the using Gal4 DNA binding domain (DBD) protein fused to LXR
LBD in HepG2 (Fig. 3C). LXR-LBD was highly activated in this system by the LXR synthetic ligand as previously reported. This activation was completely abolished by co-transfection of PKA, suggesting that PKA activation inhibits ligand-mediated activation of LXR. PKA-mediated inhibition of LXR transcriptional activity was supported by luciferase assays using the promoter of ABCA1, another LXR target gene. Mouse ABCA1 promoter activity was also dose-dependently inhibited by PKA expression in both basal and LXR-induced conditions (Fig. 3D).
|
Is Phosphorylated by PKA in VitroThese data led us to speculate that PKA modulates LXR activity, most likely through direct phosphorylation of LXR
. To test this hypothesis, in vitro kinase assays of LXR
were performed. Purified recombinant protein of histidine-tagged LXR
was incubated with the PKA catalytic subunit. LXR
protein was phosphorylated by PKA as well as PKA autophosphorylation and histone H1 phosphorylation as positive controls of PKA target protein (Fig. 4A). Functional domains of the LXR
protein were also tested using this in vitro kinase assay (Fig. 4B). Every domain of LXR
was significantly phosphorylated. In the amino acid sequence of PKA, there are two potential PKA target sites (serines 195 and 196; threonine 290 and serine 291) in the LBD/heterodimerization domain. Introduction of mutation in which these serine residues were replaced by alanine caused resistance to PKA inhibition of SREBP-1c promoter activation (Fig. 4C). To assess whether LXR
is phosphorylated by PKA in vivo, COS7 cells were transfected with expression vector for HA-tagged LXR
and subsequently labeled with [32P]orthophosphate. After treatment with PKA activators, the phosphorylation state of LXR
was examined by autoradiography. As evident from autoradiography and immunoblots (Fig. 4D), PKA stimulation induced the phosphorylation state of LXR
. These results indicate that PKA directly phosphorylates LXR protein, which is crucial for PKA inhibition of LXR activity.
DNA Binding Activity of LXR/RXR Heterodimer Was Decreased by PKA Phosphorylation of LXR
The effect of LXR
phosphorylation by PKA on DNA binding was tested by EMSA assays (Fig. 5A). Recombinant LXR
protein requires RXR for its binding to LXRE. The signal of LXR/RXR bound to LXRE was partially decreased by PKA treatment of LXR. This effect required the incubation of LXR with PKA at 30 °C, indicating the PKA inhibition was mediated through its kinase activity. To confirm this effect in vivo, nuclear extracts of livers from dibutyryl-cAMP/theophylline-administrated mice were prepared and subjected to EMSA assay (Fig. 5B). PKA activation in these nuclear extracts was confirmed by phosphorylation of CREB, a well known PKA target in mouse livers, as shown by immunoblot analysis. EMSAs of these nuclear extracts demonstrated that the signal of LXRE binding mainly from LXR/RXR, as confirmed by supershift with LXR and RXR antibodies, was dose-dependently diminished by PKA administration. Next, to determine whether PKA activation reduced DNA binding activity of LXR/RXR heterodimer, ChIP assay analysis on extracts from H2.35 cells, a mouse hepatocyte-derived cell line, was conducted. Anti-RXR antibody for immunoprecipitation of LXR/RXR heterodimer, and primers to detect LXRE on SREBP-1c promoter for PCR were used. As shown in Fig. 5C, the interaction of LXR/RXR heterodimer with LXRE was decreased upon PKA activation in vivo. These data suggest that the modification of LXR activity by PKA is attributed to reduction of DNA binding activity of LXR/RXR heterodimer via PKA phosphorylation of LXR
.
|
|
Are Reciprocally Modified by LXR
Phosphorylation by PKAIt was reported that in LXR
or
-mediated transcription of SREBP-1c; SRC-1 works as a coactivator, and NcoR1 works as a corepressor (33). To test the possibility of involvement of these cofactors in PKA inhibition of LXR activity, mammalian two-hybrid assays were preformed. The system detects the binding of VP16-AD-LXR
fusion protein and Gal4-DBD-SRC-1-NID (a functional region that interacts with nuclear receptors (34)) in 293 cells. The addition of the LXR ligand markedly activated the signal, as evidenced by recruitment of SRC-1 to LXR. PKA co-expression markedly and dose-dependently inhibited the recruitment of SRC-1 (Fig. 6A). Inversely, PKA co-expression increased the recruitment of NcoR1-NID to AD-LXR
(Fig. 6B). Inhibition of the binding between LXR
and SRC-1 NID by PKA was directly confirmed in pulldown assays. The labeled SRC-1-NID was pulled down by GST-LXR
, and the signal was reduced by PKA phosphorylation (Fig. 6C). These data suggest that PKA activation modifies LXR and enhances dissociation of coactivator and recruitment of corepressor, leading to repression of LXR transcriptional activity.
|
/RXR Interaction Is Impaired by PKAFinally, the effect of PKA on heterodimerization of LXR/RXR was estimated by co-immunoprecipitation in vivo. Myc-tagged LXR
and RXR were co-expressed in COS7 with or without PKA activation (Fig. 7A). RXR was co-immunoprecipitated with the tagged LXR
. This binding between LXR
and RXR was nearly eliminated by PKA activation. In contrast, PKA increased the co-immunoprecipitation of FLAG-tagged CBP and HA-tagged CREB, well characterized targets of PKA (Fig. 7B). These data demonstrated that the interaction of LXR
and RXR is impaired by PKA activation, explaining at least partly PKA inhibition of LXR transactivation.
|
25%) decrease in both basal and ligand-stimulated response by the RXR mutation. PKA activation dose-dependently inhibited this RXR-mediated LXRE reporter. The RXR mutation modestly prevented this negative effect of PKA on RXR function especially at low dose dbcAMP(10, 30 µM) but less at high dose dbcAMP(100 µM). These results indicate that RXR phosphorylation is at least in part involved in suppression of SREBP-1c promoter activity by cAMP/PKA signals. | DISCUSSION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
protein and inhibits its signaling, resulting in suppression of SREBP-1c transcription both in vitro and in vivo. Phosphorylation of LXR
, presumably through its conformational change, causes two consequences; suppression of RXR dimerization leading to decreased binding to LXRE and suppression of the ligand activation followed by decreased recruitment of coactivator SRC-1 and increased recruitment of corepressor NcoR1. Both events lead to repression of LXR transactivation for SREBP-1c. PKA inhibition was more prominent for LBD activation of LXR than for its binding to LXRE.
|
and negatively such as L-type PK (28). Now, LXR can be added to the list of PKA-modulating factors. Although PKA-dependent phosphorylation sites (RX02(S/T)) lie within all domains of LXR, the 195196 serines and 290291 threonine and serine residues might be crucial for ligand-induced conformational change since these sites in human LXR
completely match the most preferable consensus sequence (R(R/K)X(S/T)). It is also possible that phosphorylation states of these critical sites control other potential phosphorylation sites. LXR/RXR also transactivate other genes such as the ABCA1 (36) and the ABCG family (37, 38). The LXR
-induced activity of the ABCA1 promoter containing LXRE was also repressed by PKA similarly to the SREBP-1c promoter. However, the inhibitory effect of PKA on the ABCA1 mRNA level was minimal in our sets of experiments in livers and hepatic cells. Conversely, expression of ABCA1 in murine macrophage cell line RAW 264 cells was reported to be up-regulated by dbcAMP (39, 40), although its responsible regulatory motif in the ABCA1 promoter has not been identified. This undetermined cAMP-dependent activation mechanism might unmask LXR-mediated suppression of ABCA1 promoter by PKA in the liver. It has been reported that the glucagon/cAMP signal suppresses the expression of SREBP-1c in rat primary hepatocytes (24). Our current data clarify its molecular mechanism. The hypothesis that PKA suppresses SREBP-1c through LXR signal is supported by the following observations. 1) LXR/RXR is a dominant activator for SREBP-1c. 2) PKA inhibition of SREBP-1c promoter activity was more prominent in its activation by the LXR agonist than in the basal level. 3) Deletion studies with SREBP-1c promoter luciferase constructs revealed that LXRE is responsible for PKA inhibition. Based upon our findings the glucagon/cAMP/PKA signal could at least partially explain fasting suppression of SREBP-1c through LXR/RXR and LXRE. In support, it was reported that the effect of insulin on SREBP-1c expression could be mediated by LXR and LXRE (41). Further studies are needed to fully determine the extent to which the glucagon/cAMP/PKA signal contributes to fasting regulation of hepatic metabolic genes including SREBP-1c.
In a recent report it is observed that LXR
and -
are phosphorylated in HEK293 cells by an unknown kinase(s) (42). In their data basal and ligand-stimulated LXR
activity to induce ABCA1 promoter were not altered by substitution of phosphorylation residue to alanine. However, the response of mutant LXR
to potential kinases remains to be tested. Our study for the first time suggests the possibility that LXR mediates a nutritional signal via phosphorylation by PKA. Further study is needed to more precisely identify the physiological function in LXR phosphorylation.
In summary, transcriptional activity of LXR
on SREBP-1c promoter was decreased by PKA. Direct phosphorylation of LXR
by PKA resulted in a decrease of DNA binding and coactivator recruitment of LXR. This first demonstration of modification of LXR activity by phosphorylation suggests that reduction of mRNA level of SREBP-1c in fasting conditions might be mechanistically at least in part through LXR phosphorylation.
| FOOTNOTES |
|---|
1 To whom correspondence and requests should be addressed. Fax: 81-29-853-317; E-mail: shimano-tky{at}umin.ac.jp.
2 The abbreviations used are: SREBP, sterol regulatory element-binding protein; dbcAMP, dibutyryl-cAMP; NID, nuclear receptor interaction domain; DBD, DNA binding domain; LBD, ligand binding domain; LXR, liver X receptor
; PKA, protein kinase A; CREB, cAMP-response element-binding protein; CBP, CREB-binding protein; HA, hemagglutinin; CMV, cytomegalovirus; DTT, dithiothreitol; EMSA, electrophoretic mobility shift assay; ChIP, chromatin immunoprecipitation; LXRE, LXR responsive element; RE, responsive element. ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
| REFERENCES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
I. P. Torra, N. Ismaili, J. E. Feig, C.-F. Xu, C. Cavasotto, R. Pancratov, I. Rogatsky, T. A. Neubert, E. A. Fisher, and M. J. Garabedian Phosphorylation of Liver X Receptor {alpha} Selectively Regulates Target Gene Expression in Macrophages Mol. Cell. Biol., April 15, 2008; 28(8): 2626 - 2636. [Abstract] |