Rb. Pilz et al., NITRIC-OXIDE AND CGMP ANALOGS ACTIVATE TRANSCRIPTION FROM AP-1-RESPONSIVE PROMOTERS IN MAMMALIAN-CELLS, The FASEB journal, 9(7), 1995, pp. 552-558
Nitric oxide (NO) increases cytosolic guanylate cyclase activity and t
hereby activates the cGMP signal transduction pathway, The cAMP and Ca
2+-phospholipid signal transduction pathways activate transcription fa
ctors that bind to the cAMP response element (CRE) and phorbol ester r
esponse element (TRE), respectively, Little is known about transcripti
onal regulation of gene expression by NO/cGMP, In transient and stable
transfection experiments and in microinjection studies we found that
three different NO-releasing agents and two membrane-permeable cGMP an
alogs activated TRE-regulated but not CRE-regulated reporter genes in
rodent fibroblast and epithelial cell lines, Activation of TRE regulat
ed genes by NO-releasing agents and cGMP analogs appeared to be mediat
ed by the AP-1 (Jun/Fos) transcription factor complex because we obser
ved increased DNA binding of AP-1 and increased junB and c-fos mRNA in
cells treated with these agents, The mechanism of gene activation by
NO/cGMP was distinct from that used by phorbol esters and cAMP because
it was not associated with c-jun mRNA induction and was not observed
with CRE-containing promoters.