A protein kinase C-activating phorbol ester enhances transcription of the human DBH gene through a cyclic AMP response element in SK-N-BE(2)C cells.
Protein kinase C (PKC) activation after treatment of human neuroblastoma SK-N-BE(2)C cells with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) was found to enhance transcription of the human dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH) in those cells. To identify which cis-acting element is responsive to the PMA treatment during DBH gene expression, we employed transient transfection assays with serially deleted constructs of the human DBH gene's 5' upstream region fused to the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene. Treatment of transfected cells with PMA resulted in an approximate threefold increase in CAT expression for all deletion constructs ranging from -978 bp to -262 bp, while the enhancement did not occur with a construct shortened to -114 bp. The region between -262 and -114 bp from the initiation site of transcription contains several cis-regulatory elements including a cyclic AMP response element (CRE) and putative AP1 and YY1 sequences. Site-directed mutagenesis of those cis-acting elements were performed to identify which of the elements mediated the PMA-induced transcriptional enhancement. Substitution of bases in the putative AP1 site containing in part a putative YY1 sequence did not effect the PMA inducibility. However, specific mutations in the CRE sequence abolished the PMA-inducible effect. Changing the CRE sequence into an authentic AP1 sequence (TGACGTCC --> TGACTCA) did not affect the PMA inducibility, suggesting that AP1 factors might interact with the new AP1 site upon PKC activation. A specific PKC inhibitor, GF109203X, completely inhibited the stimulatory effect of PMA on the expression of the human DBH gene. PMA induced an increase in the DBH mRNA level as detected by Northern blot analysis. Gel retardation showed that the binding of nuclear factors to CRE, putative YY1, and AP1 was sequence specific. Our data suggest that the enhancement of the human DBH gene expression by PMA treatment is mediated by the CRE motif in the 5' upstream region of the gene, and occurs via a PKC-dependent pathway.