Diabetes, Vol 46, Issue 3 354-362, Copyright © 1997 by American Diabetes Association
Cell-specific regulation of IRS-1 gene expression: role of E box and C/EBP binding site in HepG2 cells and CHO cells
K Matsuda, E Araki, R Yoshimura, K Tsuruzoe, N Furukawa, K Kaneko, H Motoshima, K Yoshizato, H Kishikawa and M Shichiri
Department of Metabolic Medicine, Kumamoto University School of Medicine, Japan.
Insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) is one of the major substrates of
insulin receptor tyrosine kinase and mediates multiple insulin signals
downstream. We have previously shown that the levels of IRS-1 mRNA varied
in different tissues. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms of the tissue
specific regulation of IRS-1, we have studied the cis-acting elements and
transacting factors in CHO and HepG2 cells. Using the chloramphenicol
acetyltransferase (CAT) assay with the various deletion mutants of the
IRS-1 promoter-CAT fusion plasmids, several regions responsible for
positive or negative regulation in each cell line were identified. A region
from -1645 to -1585 bp, which regulated expression negatively in CHO cells
and positively in HepG2 cells, was further analyzed. Within this region a
fragment from -1645 to -1605 bp upregulated the IRS-1 promoter only in
HepG2 cells, whereas a fragment from -1605 to -1585 bp downregulated only
in CHO cells. In the gel mobility shift assay, several nuclear proteins
that bind to these fragments were detected, and among them, two nuclear
proteins that bind to a potential E box (nucleotide [nt] -1635 to -1630)
and two nuclear proteins that bind to a potential C/EBP binding site (nt
-1599 to -1591) were identified in HepG2 and CHO cells, respectively. CAT
assays using promoters mutated at the E box or at the C/EBP binding site
revealed that these sequences were responsible for cell-specific regulation
of the IRS-1 gene. We therefore concluded that the two nuclear proteins
that bind to the E box regulate IRS-1 gene expression positively in HepG2
cells and the two nuclear proteins that bind to the C/EBP binding site
regulate it negatively in CHO cells.