THE TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR AP-1 BINDS TO THE HUMAN INTERLEUKIN-1-ALPHA PROMOTER

Despite numerous reports on IL-1 and the obvious importance of IL-1 in the cytokine network, very little is known regarding the molecular de tails of IL-1 regulation, While information is now emerging for IL-1 b eta, mechanisms in IL-1 alpha gene regulation remain largely unknown, Examination of the 5'-flanking region of the human interleukin-1 alpha promoter (IL-1 alpha) and its first intron revealed several potential binding sites for known transcription factors, We thus studied this r egion by using an electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), EMSA st udies showed that the region -12 to -6 of the human IL-1 alpha promote r contains an LPS-inducible AP-1-binding site composed of Jun and Fos proteins. On the other hand, no NF-kappa B binding within the TL-1 alp ha promoter and its first intron was shown.