Structural analysis of human SCC antigen 2 promoter

The squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA) has been used as a circulating t umor marker for the management of squamous cell carcinoma. SCCA consists of a small gene family of at least two in human genome (SCCA1 and SCCA2), whi ch are tandemly arrayed on chromosome 18q21.3 and share 92% identical resid ues. SCCA expressions are tightly controlled in a tissue-specific manner. T o investigate the role of SCCA2 in the cancer cells, we first isolated the human genomic clones, containing the promoter region of SCCA2 gene, and det ermined the nucleotide sequence surrounding the exon 1. The transcription s tart site was mapped by primer extension analysis, and a putative TATA box element was found in the 5'-flanking region. Other putative regulatory sequ ences, which include Ets binding sequence, NF-IL6 binding sequence and IRE consensus sequence, were also found in the region. Analysis of luciferase r eporter gene expression in transient transfection showed that the promoter region of SCC;IZ gene was located within the region from -424 to +47. (C) 1 999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.