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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 282, Issue 43, 31156-31165, October 26, 2007
CCAAT/Enhancer-binding Protein-
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| ABSTRACT |
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. | INTRODUCTION |
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Most responsive hepatic genes are up-regulated in the presence of elevated glucose and/or insulin and down-regulated in their absence. However, a subset of responsive genes behaves in the converse manner and are down-regulated in the presence of glucose and/or insulin and up-regulated in their absence. The former group is large and includes the genes for proteins involved in glucose uptake and enzymes required for glucose metabolism and for conversion to glycogen and triglycerides, whereas the latter group is small and appears to be primarily composed of genes encoding enzymes involved in hepatic glucose synthesis and in the endoplasmic-reticulum stress response, which is triggered by glucose deprivation (reviewed in Ref. 3).
There may also be additional hepatic genes, seemingly less likely targets of glucose and/or insulin, whose expression is regulated in a similar manner. The objective of the work presented here was to evaluate the effects of glucose and insulin on transcription of the coagulation factor VII (FVII)2 gene in hepatocytes.
FVII is a vitamin K-dependent hepatic glycoprotease present in the circulation primarily as an inactive zymogen at very low concentration. Nearly all plasma FVII is in zymogen form, but
1% has been proteolytically cleaved to the activated form, FVIIa (reviewed in Ref. 4). In solution, FVIIa demonstrates negligible activity against its substrates, the zymogens of coagulation factors X and IX (5, 6). Only when bound under the appropriate conditions to its obligate receptor, tissue factor, does FVIIa attain its full catalytic ability. Tissue factor is an integral membrane protein expressed constitutively to some degree on most cells external to the vasculature (reviewed in Ref. 7). Vascular injury exposes membrane-bound tissue factor to FVII and FVIIa from the blood, and it is capable of interaction with both. When zymogen FVII binds tissue factor, it is converted to FVIIa by trace amounts of other coagulation proteases, by the FVII-activating protease or autocatalytically (see Ref. 4 and references therein) (8, 9) and is then held in an optimal orientation relative to the cell membrane for effective interactions with factors X and IX (4). However, most cell surface tissue factor is itself in an inactive, or encrypted, form (reviewed in Ref. 10). Encrypted tissue factor binds FVII/FVIIa but does not support its catalytic activity (11). Decryption of tissue factor is associated with influx of calcium ions (12), local loss of membrane asymmetry (13), dissociation of tissue factor dimers (10), and disulfide exchange at the external Cys186–Cys209 bond of tissue factor (14, 15). Interaction of FVIIa with decrypted tissue factor permits activation of the coagulation cascade, leading to the localized generation of thrombin at an injury site (5).
Tissue factor expression is also inducible, and tissue factor has been found within the circulation, in association with membranes of activated cells or microparticles derived from them (16, 17) as well as in an alternatively spliced, soluble form (18). It has been suggested that this "blood-borne" tissue factor participates in thrombus enlargement and perhaps in triggering of thrombosis under pathological conditions (19, 20), although this is controversial (21).
FVIIa activity is essential for coagulation by the extrinsic pathway, (22), which is involved in both hemostasis and thrombosis. Elevated plasma FVII levels are associated with polymorphisms in the promoter of the gene (23), whereas decreased levels are associated with distinct polymorphisms in the promoter, the structural gene, or both (24, 25). Whether carriage of polymorphisms influences the risk of thrombosis is presently unclear, since some studies report increased risk of myocardial infarction (26–29) or stroke (30) in carriers of FVII-elevating polymorphisms or protection from risk in carriers of FVII-lowering polymorphisms (31–33), whereas other studies do not (34, 35).
Plasma FVII levels may also be elevated in diabetes, a disease characterized by disordered glucose metabolism and increased risk of thrombotic complications (36). The mechanism through which FVII levels are modulated in diabetes is not understood. We therefore investigated whether transcription of the FVII gene was influenced by glucose and insulin.
The data presented herein indicate that deprivation of glucose and insulin, over a physiologically relevant concentration range, significantly increased expression of both FVII mRNA and FVII protein secreted by HepG2 cells, a human hepatoma cell line. The induction of FVII triggered by withdrawal of glucose and insulin could be prevented, and expression of FVII could be suppressed below basal levels, by reintroduction of insulin to deficient culture medium. These results were recapitulated using a reporter gene system, suggesting that transcriptional effects were involved. A functional region of the FVII minimal promoter capable of interaction with C/EBP isoforms was identified and found to participate in mediating the changes in reporter gene expression attributable to fluctuations in glucose and insulin levels.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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Preparation of FVII Minigenes—A segment of FVII promoter extending from position –728 to +1 was appended to a FVII cDNA segment extending from position +1 to +268 by overlapping PCR and spliced into plasmid pED-FVII using unique restriction enzyme sites present in the PCR primers and the vector to produce an expression vector with native FVII minigene, pED-FVII-MG. pED-FVII is a dicistronic mammalian expression vector carrying the dihydrofolate reductase gene as a selectable marker, in addition to 32 bp of FVII 5'-untranslated region, the complete FVII cDNA, and 1.2 kb of FVII 3'-untranslated region containing the native polyadenylation sites, under the direction of the SV40 promoter. The construction of pED-FVII has been described previously (39). During generation of the pED-FVII-MG construct, the SV40 promoter sequence was removed and replaced with the FVII promoter segment, thus placing the FVII cDNA under the direction of a segment of its native promoter. The construct was sequenced to confirm segments obtained by PCR and restriction sites used for cloning.
Cell Culture, Treatments, and Transfections—HepG2 cells (ATCC HB-8065) were cultured in minimal essential medium containing 5 mM glucose, supplemented with 10% certified fetal bovine serum containing 0.4 mIU/ml insulin, 4 mM/liter glutamine, 10 mM/liter pyruvate, 10 mM/liter HEPES buffer, pH 7.2, 100 units/ml penicillin G, 100 µg/ml streptomycin at 37 °C in an atmosphere of 5% CO2. For glucose deprivation experiments, 2 x 106 cells were plated in standard medium and allowed to attain confluence. Following a 24-h preincubation in medium with 1% FBS, media were changed to glucose-free medium with 10% dialyzed serum and further supplemented with glucose and/or recombinant human insulin as indicated. Media and sera were obtained from Invitrogen, and recombinant human insulin was from Sigma.
For transient transfection of HepG2 cells, 2 x 106 cells were plated per dish and transfected by either the calcium phosphate method or with Lipofectamine reagent (Invitrogen) as noted in the legend to Fig. 3, with growth hormone reporter vector and pSV-
-galactosidase expression plasmid (Promega Corp.) as an internal control to monitor transfection efficiency. Media were applied to transfected cells at the end of the transfection period and maintained for 48 h. At harvest, media and lysates were assayed for hGH (Diagnostic Systems Laboratories, Webster, TX) and
-galactosidase (Promega). hGH values were corrected for transfection efficiency, and then reporter expression was normalized and averaged, and the S.D. values were calculated. Statistical significance of differences in expression between groups was assessed by the Student's t test.
CHO-DUKX-B11 cells (a gift of Dr. B. Furie, Boston, MA), deficient in dihydrofolate reductase, were used for transfection with pED-FVII-MG-WT and pED-FVII. Cells were cultured in
-modified essential medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum, 4 mM/liter glutamine, 10 mM/liter pyruvate, 10 mM/liter HEPES buffer, pH 7.2, 100 units/ml penicillin G, 100 µg/ml streptomycin, 10 µg/ml adenosine, 10 µg/ml deoxyadenosine, and 10 µg/ml thymidine, at 37 °C, 5% CO2. Transient transfections of 1 x 106 cells with 2 µg of pED-FVII (or pED-FVII-MG) and 0.5 µg of pRSV-
gal were performed as described (39) for 16 h using Lipofectamine reagent, with or without co-transfection of expression vectors for C/EBP
isoforms liver-activating protein (LAP) or liver-inhibiting protein (LIP), both kindly provided by Dr. M. Kilberg (Gainesville, FL). 48 h post-transfection, culture media and cells were harvested for assay of secreted FVII and
-galactosidase, respectively.
Preparation of Nuclear or Whole Cell Extracts—HepG2 nuclear extracts were prepared by the method of Schreiber (40). Nuclear extracts from male rat liver were obtained from Geneka Corp. (Montreal, Canada). HepG2 cells were transfected with 10 µg of expression plasmids for the rat liver-activating protein (pLAP) or liver-inhibiting protein (pLIP), isoforms of C/EBP
, and whole cell extracts were prepared 48 h later (41). Protein concentrations of extracts were determined by Bradford assay (Bio-Rad).
FVII Antigen (FVII:Ag) Assay—FVII:Ag secreted by HepG2 cells under standard and experimental culture conditions or by CHO cells after transfection with pED-FVII-MG-WT was measured by commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of the conditioned media (American Bioproducts, Parsippany, NJ). Serum-containing medium not conditioned by cells gave responses in this assay nearly indistinguishable from diluent buffer alone, which were
30-fold lower than those obtained for conditioned media under the standard conditions (not shown).
Real Time Reverse Transcriptase PCR—The RNeasy miniprep protocol (Qiagen Inc., Germantown, MD) was used to prepare total RNA from HepG2 cells grown under standard or various experimental growth conditions. 20 ng of total RNA was used for FVII mRNA determination and (as an internal control) for 18 S ribosomal RNA determination in multiple replicates as noted. The values were compared with those obtained for parallel reactions run with total human liver mRNA (Ambion, Inc., Austin, TX) at concentrations between 0 and 100 ng, which were used to construct standard curves for each. No amplification controls, as well as no input RNA controls, were run with each assay. The PCR primers and fluorescent probe for FVII were as follows: forward primer, 5'-GACCAGTGTGCCTCAAGTCCAT-3'; reverse primer, 5'-CCGTTCTCGTTCACACAGATCA-3'; probe, 5'-(6-carboxyfluorescein)-TCATCCTTGTGCGTCTCACAGTTCCGT(tetramethyl-6-carboxyrhodamine). The target region produced a PCR product of the expected size with total RNA template following reverse transcription; no product was obtained with genomic DNA template or in the absence of reverse transcriptase (not shown). Primers and probe for 18 S rRNA detection were from the TaqMan ribosomal RNA control kit. All reagents for real time reverse transcriptase PCR were obtained from Applied Biosystems (Foster City, CA), and reactions were run on an ABI-7700 detector under standard conditions (30-min reverse transcriptase reaction at 48 °C, 10 min at 95 °C, and 40 cycles of PCR with 15 s at 95 °C/1 min at 60 °C).
Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assays (EMSA)—Complementary oligonucleotides were annealed and end-labeled with [
-32P]ATP (PerkinElmer Life Sciences) using T4 polynucleotide kinase (New England Biolabs, Beverly, MA). FVII oligonucleotides (upper strand sequence) were as follows: native and mutated translation start site region, residues –20 to +14 or –20 to +25, 5'-AGCACTGCAGAGATTTCATCATGGTCTCCCAGGC-3' (TLSS-WT1) and 5'-AGCACTGCAGAGATgagcgCATGGTCTCCCAGGC-3' (TLSS-MT1) or 5'-AGCACTGCAGAGATTTCATCATGGTCTCCCAGGCCCTCAGGCTCC-3' (TLSS-WT2) and 5'-AGCACTGCAGAGATgagcgCATGGTCTCCCAGGCCCTCAGGCTCC-3' (TLSS-MT2). The mutated residues are shown in lowercase type. Incubations were done in 15 µl for 30 min at 4 °C, in 50 mM HEPES, pH 7.5, 30 mM KCl, 3 mM MgCl2, 0.5 mM EDTA, 0.5 mM dithiothreitol, 12% glycerol, 1 µg of poly(dI-dC), with 3–5 µg of HepG2 nuclear extract or 4.4 µg of rat liver nuclear extract. Reactions were run on 5% (w/v) polyacrylamide gels in 1x TBE (90 mM Tris base, 90 mM borate, 0.5 mM EDTA) buffer and autoradiographed. For competition assays, unlabeled competitor oligonucleotides were added to reaction mixtures with the radiolabeled probe. For supershift assays, polyclonal antibodies directed against C/EBP isoforms, which recognize both the homologous human and rodent proteins (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc., Santa Cruz, CA), were added to extracts during a 60-min preincubation at 4 °C prior to the addition of oligonucleotide probe.
| RESULTS |
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0.4 mIU/ml. HepG2 cells possess functional insulin receptors and in the presence of insulin will take up and catabolize glucose. When cells were maintained in glucose-free basal medium supplemented with dialyzed serum, the amount of FVII:Ag secreted by the cells over a 24-h time course was significantly increased. Supplementation of this glucose/insulin-deficient medium with 5 mM glucose and recombinant human insulin at 100 nM suppressed this effect (Fig. 1A). The incremental reduction in FVII:Ag level was similar at 1 and 5 mM and at 48 as well as 24 h, suggesting that the response is due to the presence or absence of insulin rather than of glucose (Fig. 1B). Measurement of FVII mRNA levels by reverse transcription real time PCR under these different growth conditions mirrored the effects seen for FVII protein levels (Fig. 1C). Thus, limitation of glucose/insulin increased expression from the endogenous FVII gene in hepatoma cells at both mRNA and protein levels, and this effect was reversed by reintroduction of these compounds.
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Previous characterizations of the FVII 5'-flanking region by DNase I footprinting, EMSA, and mutational analyses indicated that two regions within the minimal promoter, –40 to –70 and –84 to –108, are necessary and sufficient for liver-specific expression of the FVII gene. The former region binds hepatic nuclear factor 4 (HNF4), a transcription factor prominent in liver, and the latter binds the ubiquitously distributed transcription factor Sp1. When either the HNF4 or the Sp1 target area was disrupted by mutagenesis, binding to these nuclear proteins was prevented, and expression of the reporter gene was greatly reduced (42–44). Subsequent analyses of the causal molecular defects in several unrelated patients with the hereditary bleeding disorder, FVII deficiency, showed that each carried a single base mutation in the FVII 5'-flanking region, confirming the importance of these promoter regions to in vivo FVII expression. These mutations are C to T at position –55 (45), T to G at position –59 (46), T to C at position –60 (47), T to G at position –61 (48), C to G at position –94 (49), and C to T at position –96 (50). In vitro analyses indicate that each mutation impairs expression of a reporter gene, whereas EMSA indicates that the four former mutations disturb interaction with HNF4 and the two latter with Sp1.
Additional footprinted areas within the minimal promoter of FVII have been also been described, although transcriptional regulators interacting with these regions (–51 to –32 and –13 to +6) are largely unknown (46). Our inspection of FVII minimal promoter sequence indicated that the sequence between positions –8 and +1 is strongly homologous to previously characterized sequences from the promoters of several genes, which mediate transcriptional responses to availability of nutrients, such as amino acids and/or carbohydrates (51–63). The sequences of these response elements and comparison with the –8 to +1 region of the FVII promoter are shown in Table 1. The data of Fig. 2A indicated that the sequence required for the FVII glucose/insulin response was contained within the minimal promoter, which would also encompass this putative response element at positions –8 to +1. To examine whether the identified sequence mediated responses to glucose/insulin, vector p-108/134WT was generated, and a block mutation was installed between residues –6 and –2 to produce construct p-108/134MT. These longer constructs included exon 1a (residues +1 to +64) and a segment of the first intron (residues +65 to +134) of the FVII gene in addition to the minimal promoter. Further transient transfection assays were then performed.
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Nuclear Proteins, Including C/EBPs, Specifically Bind the Identified FVII Response Element—To identify transcriptional regulators that might transduce these responses, EMSAs were done with hepatic nuclear extracts and oligonucleotides encompassing residues –20 to +14 or –20 to +25 of the FVII gene, having either native sequence (TLSS-WT1 and -WT2) or block-mutated sequence at positions –6 through –2 (TLSS-MT1 and -MT2). As shown in Fig. 3A, complexes from nuclear extracts of HepG2 cells cultured under various regimens of glucose and insulin bound to the native oligonucleotide. There was only weak binding between proteins of these same extracts and the mutated oligonucleotide, however. Also, the complexes with the mutated oligonucleotide, observed at long exposure times, had different electrophoretic mobilities in comparison with the prominent complexes observed with the native oligonucleotide and so may be composed of different nuclear proteins. Correspondingly, hepatic nuclear complexes formed with labeled native oligonucleotide were competed by excess unlabeled native oligonucleotide, indicating that the binding interactions were specific, but they were not competed by mutated oligonucleotide, indicating that the interactions were taking place through the identified sequence (Fig. 3B).
To identify nuclear proteins capable of binding to the native oligonucleotide, supershift analyses were performed. As mentioned above, sequence between –8 and +1 of the FVII promoter is strikingly similar to characterized elements in several other genes (Table 1); in accordance with the nomenclature, this region is referred to as the FVII amino acid response element, or FVII AARE. The AARE in the asparagine synthase (AS) gene mediates up-regulation when either glucose or amino acids are limited (64), and transcription factors of the C/EBP family were shown to recognize the sequence although it is not a typical C/EBP element. Supershift analysis confirmed that members of the C/EBP family also recognize the FVII AARE. As seen in Fig. 4, antibodies recognizing particular C/EBP isoforms produced supershifted complexes with nuclear extracts prepared from HepG2 cells under standard growth conditions and with nuclear extracts from rat liver as well. Thus, CCAAT transcription factors, whether obtained from hepatoma cells or normal hepatocytes, demonstrably interact with the FVII AARE. These data indicate that C/EBP
and -
isoforms do not bind the FVII response element, whereas the C/EBP
, -
, and -
isoforms do.
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itself is present in multiple isoforms, including a full-length transcription factor, a slightly smaller isoform lacking 23 amino acid residues at the N terminus of the protein (LAP), and a truncated form lacking the transactivation domain but containing the dimerization domain (LIP). These isoforms arise by use of alternate translation initiation sites within the C/EBP
mRNA (65, 66). As their names imply, LAP generally promotes transcription, whereas LIP functions as a natural dominant-negative regulator of other members of the C/EBP family. The C/EBP
isoform, too, is a natural dominant negative and, like LIP, could decrease C/EBP-mediated expression by making dimers defective in DNA binding or transactivation with LAP or other activating forms of C/EBP family proteins. However, only the association with C/EBP
was further examined in this study.
First, the ability of recombinant C/EBP
isoforms to interact with the native and mutated FVII oligonucleotides was examined. Extracts from HepG2 cells overexpressing either the full-length (LAP) or truncated (LIP) recombinant rat C/EBP
s contained prominent complexes that bound native, but not mutated, oligonucleotide, and these complexes were completely supershifted by anti-C/EBP
antibody (Fig. 5A). Then HepG2 nuclear extracts were prepared from cells cultured under various regimens of glucose and insulin. In each case, multiple nuclear protein complexes of closely similar mobilities were seen, which were supershifted with anti-C/EBP
antibody (Fig. 5B). These results indicated that C/EBP
complexes were present under all three conditions, perhaps forming dimers with different b-Zip partners or subject to posttranslational modifications, accounting for the minor differences in electrophoretic mobility of the complexes.
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Levels Affect FVII Expression—At this point, a functional response element resembling an AARE had been identified in reporter gene assays by deletion and mutation of the FVII minimal promoter, and this region was shown to bind C/EBP
isoforms by EMSA. We were not able to demonstrate a functional interaction between the native AARE element and C/EBP
using the growth hormone reporter gene system in HepG2 cells, however, because overexpression of recombinant C/EBP
s strongly affected expression of that reporter from the promoterless control plasmid, pOGH. To demonstrate that C/EBP
participates in expression of the FVII gene, an alternative approach was used. A native FVII minigene construct, consisting of 728 bp of promoter, the cDNA, and the 3'-UTR, including polyadenylation sites from the human FVII gene, was transfected into CHO cells alone or with expression plasmids for LAP and/or LIP (Fig. 6). In these experiments, the normalized expression of secreted FVII:Ag was measured; essentially, the FVII protein served as the reporter gene under the direction of its own promoter. A very low but detectable level of FVII:Ag expression was observed from the minigene construct alone in CHO cells, which do not normally express FVII. In mock-transfected control cultures, no secreted protein was detectable using antibodies directed against human FVII:Ag. Co-expression of p-LAP, however, was found to increase expression from the minigene construct, whereas inclusion of p-LIP moderated the effect of p-LAP. In control experiments, the pED-FVII vector, in which the SV40 promoter directed expression of FVII cDNA and 3'-UTR, was measured. Expression of FVII:Ag in these cultures was significant but was not enhanced by co-expression of pLAP. These data indicated that manipulation of C/EBP
levels within the cells predictably affected FVII expression from the minigene construct containing the AARE.
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| DISCUSSION |
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proteins LAP and LIP, were capable of recognizing this FVII native sequence, but not a nonfunctional mutated sequence, and of modulating expression from a FVII minigene vector construct.
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isoforms, affect expression of the FVII gene is currently under study in our laboratory.
Our data suggest that the FVII AARE is not required for basal expression but instead mediates inducible expression or repression according to insulin status and perhaps in response to various types of cellular stress. The other proteins known to have functional AAREs are involved in amino acid biosynthesis or transport (AS, SNAT2, cystine/glutamate transporter, and cationic amino acid transporter genes) or alternatively encode transcription factors induced by cellular stresses including starvation (CHOP, tribbles-related protein 3, C/EBP
, and activating transcription factor 3 genes). The expression of a much larger group of genes is responsive to nutrient availability (reviewed in Ref. 67), but to our knowledge the existence of functional AARE elements has thus far been demonstrated only for these eight genes and, by the present work, for the FVII gene.
Sequences of the 9-bp AARE elements in these eight genes are very closely related. In Table 1, the known AAREs are arranged in the 3'–5' orientation, for comparison with the FVII element, which extends from position –8 to +1 of the FVII minimal promoter. If the AARE of the AS gene (also referred to as the NSRE-1 element (54, 68)) is considered the prototype, only the cationic amino acid transporter element is completely identical to it. The others vary slightly (e.g. at the fourth residue from the 3' side (activating transcription factor 3 AARE) or at both the first and fourth residues). Within the latter group of elements, the xCT forward and reverse AARE elements and the three tribbles-related protein 3 AAREs are alike, as are the CHOP AARE, C/EBP
AARE, and SNAT2 AARE. The FVII AARE element is not completely identical to any of the others. It matches the AS AARE at 8 of 9 positions, excepting the first residue on the 3' side, where it matches the residue found in the CHOP, C/EBP
, and SNAT2 elements. To what extent an exact nucleotide sequence is important for AARE function is not yet clear, but the number of AAREs, their proximity to other response elements, and their location within the gene, may all be factors that provide fine control of the response and result in differential expression of genes possessing one or more AARE elements.
Most of the characterized AAREs are in the 5'-UTRs of their respective genes, but the SNAT2 AARE is within the first intron (60), whereas the cationic amino acid transporter AARE is in the first exon and the C/EBP
AARE is in the 3'-UTR. The FVII AARE is uniquely positioned in that it is located at residues –8 to +1 of the minimal promoter, overlapping with the first base of the initiation codon of the FVII antigen. We are unaware of a similar element immediately preceding the translational start site of a gene.
Our data do not address whether the FVII AARE functions in a completely independent manner to modulate transcription. Although the AARE of the CHOP gene appears to work independently, AARE elements of several of the other genes, while necessary for up-regulation under nutrient deprivation conditions, are not themselves sufficient for robust induction and apparently cooperate with additional nearby elements, which have been found
10 bp, or one turn of the DNA double helix, away from the AARE. For the cystine/glutamate transporter gene, the second element, spaced 9 bp from the first AARE, is a second identical AARE in the reverse orientation. These two AAREs must cooperate to mediate increased expression in amino acid deprivation, because mutation of either one reduces the amino acid responsiveness of the gene, whereas mutation of both eliminates it altogether (61). The tribbles-related protein 3 gene has three AARE sequences oriented the same way, each of which has a potentially functional, canonical C/EBP element located 6 bp upstream (62). Similarly, the single SNAT2 AARE has a potential C/EBP element 10 bp upstream (60). The AS gene contains a second element, the NSRE-2, located 11 bp downstream of the AARE, which is required for inducible expression, but the regulatory proteins it binds have not yet been identified. Also, the C/EBP
AARE has both unfolded protein response element and NSRE-2 sites 36 and 50 bp downstream, which contribute to its effectiveness. The C/EBP
unfolded protein response element also strongly resembles the AARE consensus (63).
It is clear that cells must be able to detect and respond appropriately to periodic fluctuations in nutrient levels in order to survive episodes of deprivation. Given this, the modulation of expression of genes such as AS, SNAT-2, cystine/glutamate transporter, and cationic amino acid transporter through AARE elements following limitation of amino acids/glucose is not unexpected, since their increased activity would mitigate the effects of nutritional deprivation. But it is not obvious why expression of the gene for FVII, a secreted protein required for the initiation of coagulation by the extrinsic pathway, should be modulated in a similar manner. Also, although members of the large b-Zip family of transcriptional regulators, which includes the C/EBP
proteins, have been shown to bind several AAREs, it is unexpected for FVII expression to be affected by C/EBP transcription factors. Nonetheless, the ability of LAP and LIP to bind the FVII AARE are consistent with a role for C/EBP
in glucose/insulin-responsive expression of the FVII gene.
The genes for coagulation factors are not generally thought of as targets for C/EBP transcriptional regulators, and we are aware of only three prior reports even suggesting a role for C/EBPs in their expression. First, the promoter and first exon of the factor VIII gene have multiple elements that interact with both the
and
isoforms of C/EBP; several located near the transcriptional start site were functional when assessed by in vitro assays (69). Of seven such elements, only one, called site 2, has significant homology to the AARE consensus (Table 1), but even so it differs at two positions, 5 and 8 from the 3' side, that are invariant in all characterized AARE elements. Second, a potential binding site for C/EBP
was suggested to occur in the promoter of the human factor IX gene near the transcriptional start site and to be disrupted in some individuals with the coagulation disorder, hemophilia B Leyden, which is severe in childhood but improves with maturity (70, 71). Again, the sequence of this element differs from known AAREs at two positions, 1 and 7 from the 3' side; the latter is invariant in characterized AAREs. And third, a potential C/EBP
binding site was predicted to occur in the promoter of the murine FVII promoter by the MatInspector sequence recognition program (72). This predicted C/EBP
site is upstream of the murine Sp1 and HNF4 binding sites rather than downstream from similar functional elements in the human FVII promoter, as we show here. Recombinant C/EBP
was shown to bind to this region of the murine FVII promoter by EMSA, but a functional interaction was not demonstrated. It is interesting that the putative murine FVII C/EBP
site matches the human FVII AARE at 6 of 9 positions but differs at positions 1, 6, and 7 from the 3' side (Table 1).
Single nucleotide mutagenesis of individual residues of the AARE (NSRE-1) from the AS promoter indicates that a substitution at any position is detrimental to nutrient responsiveness of that gene (54, 68). The least severe effects were observed for change at either position 1 or 6 from the 3' side, where the response was diminished by 60%. The most severe effects were seen for change at positions 2, 4, 5, 8, or 9 from the 3' side, where in each instance the responsiveness was reduced by 90–100%. Multiple substitutions were not evaluated. All known AARE elements match exactly at positions 5–9 according to this numbering, so it is unclear whether any other coagulation factor C/EBP elements (human coagulation factor VIII or IX, murine FVII) could behave as an AARE.
The abundance of various C/EBPs in the HepG2 cells employed in the present study, relative to adult liver, is an important consideration here. A mark of hepatoma is a decrease in the level of C/EBP
(73). Although no decline in C/EBP
has been reported in hepatoma relative to hepatocytes, the ratio of these two regulators, which often bind to the same canonical response elements, is disturbed in hepatic malignancy. However, AAREs are atypical C/EBP sites that have not been shown to bind C/EBP
. Further, as we show here by supershift assays, the FVII AARE was unable to bind C/EBP
derived not only from hepatoma cell nuclear extract but also from normal rat liver nuclear extract (Fig. 4), where C/EBP
is abundant. In contrast, the FVII AARE readily bound C/EBP
from the same source as well as from HepG2 nuclear extracts.
It is also interesting to note that metabolic derangements can influence C/EBP
expression. For example, the impairment of glucose metabolism found in diabetes mellitus (74) might contribute to the elevations of plasma FVII associated with this condition, as reviewed in Ref. 36. It is known that the level of C/EBP
in the livers of streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice is elevated by 200% (75), and conversely that insulin treatment alters the ratio of hepatic C/EBP
isoforms to favor production of the dominant negative LIP (76, 77). We speculate that the metabolic changes of diabetes could trigger induced FVII expression through C/EBP
-dependent mechanisms, contributing to the increased coagulation tendency of the blood in these clinical situations.
The data presented here indicate that expression of FVII is down-regulated in the presence of insulin and up-regulated in its absence. They further suggest that in certain pathological conditions, there will be increased transcription from the FVII gene, mediated in part via a functionally active C/EBP
binding element, the FVII AARE.
| FOOTNOTES |
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1 To whom correspondence should be addressed: Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System (151), 1400 VFW Pkwy., West Roxbury, MA 02132. Tel.: 857-203-5141; Fax: 857-203-5596; E-mail: josephine_carew{at}hms.harvard.edu.
2 The abbreviations used are: FVII, coagulation factor VII; FVII:Ag, factor VII antigen; C/EBP, CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein; LAP, liver-activating protein; LIP, liver-inhibiting protein; EMSA, electrophoretic mobility shift assay; HNF4, hepatic nuclear factor 4; AARE, amino acid response element; NSRE, nutrient-sensing response element; AS, asparagine synthase; SNAT2, sodium-coupled neutral amino acid transport; CHOP, C/EBP-homologous protein; hGH, human growth hormone; CHO, Chinese hamster ovary; UTR, untranslated region. ![]()
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