TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATION OF THE HUMAN INTERCELLULAR-ADHESION MOLECULE-1 GENE - A SHORT OVERVIEW

Human intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), a transmembrane glyc oprotein that functions as a ligand for lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1, plays an important role in mediating cell-cell interaction s in inflammatory reactions. It is induced by proinflammatory cytokine s such as interleukin 1, tumor necrosis factor-alpha or interferon-gam ma, as well as by phorbol esters, retinoic acid and lipopolysaccharide . Furthermore, ICAM-1 is upregulated by interleukin-6, which suggests that it belongs to the family of acute phase response genes. Investiga tion of the 5'-regulatory region of the human ICAM-1 gene revealed seq uence motifs for a variety of transcription factors implicated in tran scriptional regulation. This review summarizes the current knowledge o f the transcriptional regulation of the human ICAM-1 gene.