Kim SM, Yang JW, Park MJ, Lee JK, Kim SU, Lee YS, Lee MA. Regulation of human tyrosine hydroxylase gene by neuron-restrictive silencer factor.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2006;
346:426-35. [PMID:
16764822 DOI:
10.1016/j.bbrc.2006.05.142]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2006] [Accepted: 05/17/2006] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), the biosynthetic enzyme of catecholamine, is synthesized specifically in catecholaminergic neurons. Thus, it is possible that neuronal cell type-specific expression of this gene is coordinately regulated. One of the neuron-specific transcription regulators, neuron-restrictive silencer factor (NRSF)/repressor element 1 (RE1) silencing transcription factor (REST), represses the expression of neuronal genes in non-neuronal cells. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms that control catecholaminergic neuronal expression of human TH, we initially characterized the 5' regulatory region. Previous studies have shown that a 3174 bp fragment of the human TH promoter confers specific expression to the reporter gene in dopaminergic neuron-like cell lines. Within this 5' regulatory region, three putative neuron-restrictive silencer elements (NRSE)/RE1 were identified, which bound NRSF/REST in a sequence-specific manner, as confirmed using EMSA and ChIP assays. In transient transfection assays, deletion or mutation of NRSE/RE1 elements led to a 7-fold increase in activity of the 3.2 kb TH promoter in human neural stem cells (NSCs), but had no major effects on differentiated neuron-like cells. Suppression of NRSF/REST functions with either the histone deacetylase inhibitor, trichostatin, or DN-NRSF induced TH promoter activity. Our data strongly suggest that NRSF/REST functions as a repressor of TH transcription in NSCs via a mechanism dependent on the TH NRSE/RE1 sites.
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