Apolipoprotein(a) Gene Enhancer Resides within a LINE Element*
Abstract
Apolipoprotein(a), (apo(a)), is the distinguishing protein portion of the lipoprotein(a) particle, elevated plasma levels of which are a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. A search for enhancer elements that control the transcription of the apo(a) gene led to the identification of an upstream element that contains target binding sites for members of the Ets and Sp1 nuclear protein families. The enhancer element functions in either orientation to confer a greater than 10-fold increase in the activity of the apo(a) minimal promoter in cultured hepatocyte cells. Unexpectedly, the enhancer element is located within a LINE retrotransposon element, suggesting that LINE elements may function as mobile regulatory elements to control the expression of nearby genes.
Footnotes
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↵* This research was supported in part by National Institutes of Health Program Project Grant 48638 and post-doctoral fellowships from the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association California Affiliate, and Swiss National Science Foundation.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.
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↵‡ To whom correspondence should be addressed: Falk Cardiovascular Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford CA 94305-5246. Tel.: 650-725-4494; Fax: 650-725-1599; E-mail: richard.lawn{at}forsythe.stanford.edu.
- Received August 1, 1997.
- Revision received October 8, 1997.
- The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
