Lack of gradual regulation of tetracycline-controlled gene expression by the tetracyclin-repressor/VP16 transactivator (tTA) in cultured cells

A novel drug-regulated gene expression system based on the nuclear receptor constitutive androstane receptor (CAR)

PURPOSE

To develop and characterize a new drug-regulated gene expression system based on the nuclear receptor constitutive androstane receptor (CAR).

METHODS

Both transient and stable transfection into HEK293 cells of luciferase plasmids under the control of either drug- and steroid-responsive nuclear receptor CAR or the tetracycline-sensitive transactivator tTA were used in development of stable cell lines.

RESULTS

A stable first-generation cell line that expresses luciferase gene under the control of nuclear receptor CAR was developed. The luciferase expression in CAR-producing cells could be suppressed by androstanes and reactivated by structurally unrelated drugs chlorpromazine, metyrapone, phenobarbital, and clotrimazole. The kinetics of luciferase expression in CAR-producing cells and the tTA system were comparable. The overall regulation of CAR system was improved by modifications to the DNA binding domain and site.

CONCLUSIONS

Because of its wide ligand selectivity and transferable ligand binding domain, CAR expands the repertoire of regulated gene expression systems.

The gene encoding the mitogen-responsive phosphoprotein Dab2 is differentially regulated by GATA-6 and GATA-4 in the visceral endoderm

Gene targeting studies have demonstrated that the zinc finger transcription factor GATA-6 lies upstream in a transcriptional cascade that controls differentiation of the visceral endoderm. To understand the function of GATA-6 in the visceral endoderm and to identify genes regulated by GATA-6 in this tissue, subtractive hybridization was performed using template cDNAs derived from differentiated wild-type embryonic stem (ES) cells and GATA-6(-/-) ES cells, respectively. These analyses revealed that the gene encoding Dab2, a mitogen-responsive phosphoprotein, is differentially expressed in wild-type and GATA-6-deficient ES cells. Consistent with these findings, Dab2 is expressed in the visceral endoderm of wild-type embryos but not in the visceral endoderm of GATA-6-deficient embryos. Cotransfection experiments demonstrate that the human Dab2 promoter can be transactivated by forced expression of GATA-6 in NIH-3T3 cells. In contrast, forced expression of GATA-4 does not transactivate the human Dab2 promoter and Dab2 is expressed in the visceral endoderm of GATA-4 null embryos. Surprisingly, the specificity of GATA-6-induced transactivation of the Dab2 promoter is not mediated through its zinc finger DNA-binding domain. Taken together, these data demonstrate that the mitogen-responsive phosphoprotein Dab2 is a downstream target of GATA-6 in the visceral endoderm. Moreover, these data demonstrate that molecular mechanisms have evolved that direct, and distinguish, the functional specificity of GATA family members when they are developmentally coexpressed.

Effect of changes in expression of the amphotropic retroviral receptor PiT-2 on transduction efficiency and viral titer: implications for gene therapy

The aim of this study was to quantify the impact of amphotropic retroviral receptor (PiT-2) levels on susceptibility to transduction and to determine whether the low level of PiT-2 found on CD34+ hematopoietic cells is within the range likely to compromise gene transfer. Receptor-deficient Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells were transfected with a PiT-2 construct that could be induced by the removal of tetracycline. The level of PiT-2 expression measured by virus binding in uninduced and in fully and partially induced transfectants correlated with the efficiency of transduction by an amphotropic retroviral reporter vector. Fully induced CHO-PiT-2 cells gave apparent viral titers similar to NIH 3T3 fibroblasts while addition of tetracycline reduced titers by up to 140-fold. Binding of the same vector preparation to purified CD34+ peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) was always less than to uninduced CHO-PiT-2 transfectants even after preincubation in 10-ng/ml concentrations of IL-3, IL-6, and stem cell factor, which increased retroviral binding by an average of 35%. The level of expression of the amphotropic retroviral receptor PiT-2 thus significantly limits transduction efficiency within the range observed in target cells of importance in human gene therapy.

Inducible, heterologous expression of human alpha7-nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in a native nicotinic receptor-null human clonal line

Tetracycline-regulated expression of recombinant nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) composed of human alpha7 subunits is achieved in native nAChR-null SH-EP1 human epithelial cells. alpha7 subunits are heterologously expressed as messenger RNA and as components of 125I-labeled alpha-bungarotoxin (I-Bgt)-binding nAChR ( approximately 10 pmol per milligram of membrane protein) at levels sensitive to the amount of tetracycline in cell growth medium. I-Bgt-binding alpha7-nAChR appear on the cell surface pool and in intracellular pools. The pharmacological profile for drug competition toward I-Bgt binding to these recombinant alpha7-nAChR matches that of human native alpha7-nAChR naturally expressed in SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells (rank order potency methyllycaconitine>1, 1-dimethyl-4-phenylpiperazinium>(-)nicotine>cytisine>carbamylch oli ne> /=d-tubocurarine). Chronic exposure to nicotine induces up-regulation of human recombinant alpha7-nAChR (80% up-regulation at 10 microM nicotine) just as it does native alpha7-nAChR in other human cell lines. These studies confirm expression of nAChR as homooligomers of human alpha7 subunits from transgenes, establish a native nAChR-null background for such expression, and demonstrate that this expression can be regulated to facilitate studies of human alpha7-nAChR.

Graded transcriptional response to different concentrations of a single transactivator

Threshold mechanisms of transcriptional activation are thought to be critical for translating continuous gradients of extracellular signals into discrete all-or-none cellular responses, such as mitogenesis and differentiation. Indeed, unequivocal evidence for a graded transcriptional response in which the concentration of inducer directly correlates with the level of gene expression in individual eukaryotic cells is lacking. By using a novel binary tetracycline regulatable retroviral vector system, we observed a graded rather than a threshold mechanism of transcriptional activation in two different model systems. When polyclonal populations of cells were analyzed at the single cell level, a dose-dependent, stepwise increase in expression of the reporter gene, green fluorescent protein (GFP), was observed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting. These data provide evidence that, in addition to the generally observed all-or-none switch, the basal transcription machinery also can respond proportionally to changes in concentration of extracellular inducers and trancriptional activators.

Tetracycline-regulatable expression vectors tightly regulate in vitro gene expression of secreted proteins

The regulation of gene expression by the tetracycline system has attracted a high level of interest in the recent past. However, expression of secreted proteins has not been evaluated precisely. In this study, we constructed two versions of a one-plasmid system containing the elements necessary for the regulation of gene expression. The regulatable elements and the selectable marker (Neor) were set up in two different configurations, pTRIN31 and pTRIN76. With these two regulatable versions, the levels of protein expression after transfection into the NIH/3T3 cell line were measured by insertion of three different genes encoding the secreted proteins (hGH, ApoE3, hGM-CSF). The maximum levels of gene expression obtained with the pTRIN76-derived plasmids were 100ng/24h/106 cells for hGH, 427ng/24h/106 cells for ApoE3 and 108ng/24h/106 cells for hGM-CSF. For the pTRIN31-derived plasmids the maximum levels were 2.7ng/24h/106 cells for hGH and 47ng/24h/106 for ApoE3. Both plasmids give rise to an expression of the transfected gene that can be tightly regulated by three different molecules: tetracycline, minocycline and doxycycline. The levels of the secreted proteins are below the detectable level when the reporter genes are repressed. This repression is reversible within 48h after the regulator has been removed from the medium.

A single plasmid vector (pSTAR) mediating efficient tetracycline-induced gene expression

A plasmid vector (pSTAR) has been constructed which confers neomycin resistance for selecting stably transfected cells, possesses a cloning cassette for placing a gene of interest under the control of the tetO DNA motif, and expresses rtTAnls which, upon association with tetracycline, binds to and drives gene expression from the tetO DNA motif. The plasmid pSTAR/LacZ, which has the gene for beta-galactosidase inserted into the cloning cassette, was transfected into Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells and selected for stably transfected cells. In pooled transfectants of CHO, tetracycline induced the expression of beta-galactosidase in 10-30% of cells. Using clonal transfectants, beta-galactosidase expression was induced by tetracycline in essentially every cell. Furthermore, induction of beta-galactosidase expression by tetracycline was both dose- and time-dependent. Similar tetracycline-induced beta-galactosidase expression is also observed in other cell types. The pSTAR vector is thus suited to facilitate the application of tetracycline-induced gene expression in diverse research areas.