Regulation mechanism of specific expression of tumor marker gene during carcinogenesis

Abstract

Rat glutathione transferase P (GST-P) is expressed at low levels in the normal liver but becomes highly expressed in hyperplastic nodules and in hepatocellular carcinomas during chemical hepatocarcinogenesis. To understand the regulation mechanisms of this gene, we have characterized the 5'-flanking region and have found that GST-P gene is regulated by at least two elements: one is a strong enhancer and the other is a silencer. GST-P enhancer I (GPEI), located at -2.5 Kb, consists of two TPA-responsive element (TRE)-like sequences that are palindromically oriented with 3 bp in between. It is well known that TRE is activated by two nuclear oncogenes, c-Jun and c-Fos. Although GPEI is trans-activated by these oncogenes, it is also active in F9 embryonal carcinoma cells that lack c-Jun protein, suggesting that it can function with some trans-activator other than AP-1 (c-Jun/c-Fos heterodimer). Indeed, another protein is identified from the F9 nuclear extract. We have also identified a silencer element at 300 bp upstream from the cap site. There are several cis-elements in this region and at least three trans-acting factors bind to these elements. We purified SF-A (silencer factor A) which binds to several regions in this silencer, and determined the partial amino acid sequence. Interestingly, SF-A seemed to be a related protein to NF1 (nuclear factor 1) which is an activator for the transcription and DNA replication. Another factor SF-B (silencer factor B) has been cloned and found to be the same as LIP (liver inhibitory protein) which is a competitor for LAP (liver activator protein), both are from the same gene designated as C/EBP beta. By transfection analysis using GAL4 DNA binding domain we found LIP is not only a competitor but a direct repressor. In the normal liver, another C/EBP family member, C/EBP alpha also acts as a negative regulator, and this expression decreases during hepatocarcinogenesis, resulting in the loss of silencer function. We carried out the carcinogenesis experiments using transgenic rats harboring a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter gene with -2900 to + 59 of the GST-P gene. Liver foci and nodules produced by chemical carcinogens were found to express high levels CAT activity by both CAT assay and immunohistochemical study, while normal liver cells did not express any CAT activity. These results demonstrate that the GST-P gene is trans-activated locus-independently during rat hepatocarcinogenesis. Moreover, the similar results were obtained using transgenic rats carrying GPEI-CAT, indicating that GPEI is an important cis-element for activation of GST-P gene during hepatocarcinogenesis.