Cl. Golden et al., THROMBIN REGULATION OF ENDOTHELIN-1 GENE IN ISOLATED HUMAN PULMONARY ENDOTHELIAL-CELLS, American journal of physiology. Lung cellular and molecular physiology, 18(5), 1998, pp. 854-863
Endothelin (ET)-1 is a potent vasoconstrictor elicited from endothelia
l cells in response to a variety of stimuli and an important mediator
for a variety of vascular diseases including pulmonary hypertension. I
n this paper, we describe the molecular regulation of the ET-1 gene in
response to a vasoactive mediator, thrombin, in human pulmonary endot
helial cells. Thrombin induces preproET-1 mRNA through a transcription
ally dependent mechanism, with a peak induction after 1 h of exposure.
Analysis of chromatin structure identified several DNase I-hypersensi
tive regions under both basal and thrombin-stimulated conditions that
reside in the 5'-promoter region, indicating that the ET-1 promoter is
a constitutive promoter. Deletion analysis was employed as a function
al assay to identify regions of the ET-1 promoter that are important i
n transcriptional regulation. We found that sites between -141 and -37
8 bp are essential for basal activity and that those between -378 and
-484 bp are essential for thrombin-stimulated activity. However, full
expression under both conditions required an element(s) within -952 bp
.