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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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Your Environment. Your Health.

Publication Detail

Title: Fos and Jun inhibit estrogen-induced transcription of the human progesterone receptor gene through an activator protein-1 site.

Authors: Petz, Larry N; Ziegler, Yvonne S; Schultz, Jennifer R; Nardulli, Ann M

Published In Mol Endocrinol, (2004 Mar)

Abstract: The progesterone receptor (PR) gene is activated by estrogen in normal reproductive tissues and in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. Although it is typically thought that estrogen responsiveness is mediated through estrogen response elements (EREs), the human PR gene lacks a palindromic ERE sequence. We have identified an activating protein-1 (AP-1) site at +745 in the human PR gene that bound purified Fos and Jun and formed a complex with Fos/Jun heterodimers present in MCF-7 nuclear extracts. Surprisingly, mutating the +745 AP-1 site in the context of a 1.5-kb region of the PR gene significantly enhanced estrogen receptor (ER) alpha-mediated transactivation, suggesting that the wild-type +745 AP-1 site plays a role in inhibiting PR gene expression in the presence of hormone. In support of this idea, transient transfection assays demonstrated that increasing levels of Fos and Jun repressed transcription of a reporter plasmid containing the +745 AP-1 site. Fos levels were transiently increased, ERalpha levels were decreased, and Jun was dephosphorylated after MCF-7 cells were treated with estrogen. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays demonstrated that Jun was associated with the +745 AP-1 site in the endogenous PR gene in the presence and in the absence of estrogen, but that ERalpha and Fos were only associated with the +745 AP-1 site after estrogen treatment of MCF-7 cells. Our studies suggest that the human PR gene is regulated by multiple transcription factors and that the differential binding of these dynamically regulated trans-acting factors influences gene expression.

PubMed ID: 14684847 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: Animals; Base Sequence; Binding Sites; Breast Neoplasms/drug therapy; Breast Neoplasms/metabolism; Cells, Cultured; Chromatin/genetics; Chromatin/metabolism; Conserved Sequence; Estradiol/pharmacology; Estrogen Receptor alpha; Estrogens/pharmacology; Gene Expression Regulation; Humans; Mice; Mutation; Phosphorylation; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos/genetics; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos/isolation & purification; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos/metabolism*; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-jun/genetics; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-jun/isolation & purification; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-jun/metabolism*; Rabbits; Rats; Receptors, Estrogen/drug effects; Receptors, Estrogen/genetics; Receptors, Estrogen/metabolism; Receptors, Progesterone/drug effects; Receptors, Progesterone/genetics*; Receptors, Progesterone/metabolism; Response Elements; Transcription Factor AP-1/metabolism*; Transcription, Genetic

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