The high affinity IL-2 receptor consists of three individual polypeptides, the
, β, and
chains. Although the β and
chains are shared by other lymphokine receptors, the
chain (CD25) is restricted to the IL-2 receptor, and is expressed by a variety of lymphoid cells (for review see reference 1). The induction of CD25 in T cells is controlled at the transcriptional level through two DNA sequence elements, a proximal promoter/enhancer spanning the nucleotides between positions –54 and –584 in the mouse and –64 and –276 in humans, and a distal enhancer spanning
80 nucleotides around position –1350 in the mouse and –3750 (or –4150, according to another nomenclature) in the human CD25 gene (2–6). The activity of the promoter is rapidly induced by TCR-mediated signals or IL-1, and is controlled by an array of transcription factors, in particular by nuclear factor (NF)-
B, Elf-1, SRF, and HMG I(Y). The induction of the distal enhancer is controlled by IL-2, which induces signal transducer and activator of transcription (Stat)5, a member of the family of Stat transcription factors. Stat5 binds in concert with Elf-1, HMG I(Y), and GATA factors to multiple sites of the distal enhancer and contributes to its IL-2–mediated full expression in activated peripheral T lymphocytes (4–6).
Nuclear factor of activated T cell (NF-AT) factors comprise a family of transcription factors that contribute to the induced expression of numerous lymphokine and receptor genes in T cells. Similar to NF-
B factors, the nuclear translocation and activity of NF-AT factors is stimulated by TCR-mediated signals (for review see reference 7). The DNA-binding domains of NF-AT and NF-
B/Rel factors share a common architecture (8) and, therefore, recognize overlapping DNA sequence motifs. These common properties between NF-AT and NF-
B (a major regulator of the CD25 promoter), and reports on the inhibition of CD25 expression by cyclosporin A (9) (an inhibitor of phosphatase calcineurin and, therefore, of nuclear translocation of NF-AT; reference 7), prompted us to investigate whether NF-AT factors participate in CD25 promoter control. We show here that NF-ATp and NF-ATc bind to two sites located immediately upstream of the proximal CD25 promoter. Mutations within the NF-AT sites that suppress NF-AT binding impair CD25 promoter induction. Accordingly, the induction of CD25 is markedly delayed in T cells from NF-ATp–deficient mice. These findings implicate an important role for NF-AT factors in the inducible expression of high affinity IL-2 receptors after T cell activation.
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Materials and Methods
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Cell Culture, Construction, and Transfection of CD25 Promoter Luciferase Plasmids.
Murine El4 T thymoma cells and human Jurkat T leukemia cells were grown in RPMI medium containing 5% FCS. 2 x 107 cells were transfected using the DEAE dextran protocol with 2.5 µg DNA of the CD25 promoter-luciferase reporter constructs alone or 0.5–2.5 µg DNA of reporter constructs (as indicated in the figure legends) along with 2 µg of a pLGP3-based vector expressing full-length murine NF-ATp (NF-AT1-C; reference 10) or an RSV-LTR vector expressing human NF-ATc. Human 293 embryonic kidney cells were cultured in DMEM and transfected using a calcium phosphate transfection protocol. The luciferase reporter gene construct contains the wild-type murine CD25 promoter spanning the nucleotides up to position –2556 (4). Mutations in one or both of the NF-ATp binding sites around positions –585 and –650 were introduced into the promoter fragment from +1 to –800 using the QuikChangeTM site-directed mutagenesis kit (Stratagene Corp., La Jolla, CA) according to the manufacturer's instructions.
The following oligonucleotides were used for the mutagenesis of NF-AT sites:
(i) (–667) GCTAGACTTAAAATCTATCATTGCAGCTGTAAACAC (–632)
CGATCTGAATTTTAGATAGTAACGTCGACATTTGTG; and
(ii) (–596) CCCACACCCATGATACTATGAATCGTGCATCAGAG (–562)
GGGTGAGGGTACTATGATACTTAGCACGTAGTCTC
The underlined nucleotides indicate the mutations.
Immunofluorescence and Flow Cytometry.
For Ab stainings, 2–8 x 105 cells were incubated on ice with mAbs at saturating concentrations. Fluorescein- and PE-labeled mAbs (Pharmingen, San Diego, CA) were used for two- and three-color immunofluorescence. For three-color flow cytometry, cells were stained first with biotinylated mAbs (PharMingen) for 15 min and were subsequently incubated with streptavidin-Red670 (GIBCO BRL, Eggenstein, Germany) and FITC- and PE-labeled mAbs for 15 min. Results obtained after analysis on a FACScan® flow cytometer (Becton Dickinson, Mountain View, CA) using Lysys II software (Becton Dickinson) are shown as log dot-plots or histograms.
DNase I Footprint Protection Assays and EMSAs.
In DNase I footprint protection assays, end-labeled DNA probes were prepared using [
-32P]ATP and polynucleotide kinase. 104 cpm (
0.2 ng) of the following DNA fragments from the murine CD25 promoter (4) were used: (a) the HindIII–SacII fragment spanning the nucleotides from position +94 to –268; and (b) the SacII–BglII fragment spanning the nucleotides from –268 to –801. Fragment (a) was recut with EspI, and fragment (b) with DraI generating DNA fragments of
150–300 bp. These were incubated for 60 min with a bacterially expressed glutathione S-transferase (GST)–NF-ATp protein (11) containing the DNA-binding domain of murine NF-ATp. The samples were processed and fractionated on 6% polyacrylamide, 42% urea-sequencing gels.
Electromobility shift assays (EMSAs) were performed as previously described (11), using 2 µg nuclear proteins and 0.5 µg poly [d(I-C)]. In supershift EMSAs, 0.5 µg of either an NF-ATp–specific Ab (Cat. no. 06-348; UBI) or an NF-ATc–specific mAb (7A6) (12) were added to the incubations. When the DNA binding of GST–NF-ATp was tested, 0.5–1.5 µg of bacterial proteins prepared by affinity column chromatography (11) were incubated along with 0.5 µg poly [d(I-C)]. The following oligonucleotides were used as probes:
(iii) (–596)gatcCCCACACCCATGGAACTATGAATCGTG (–571)
GGGTGTGGGTACCTTGATACTTAGCACctag;
(iv) (–663)gatcGACTTAAAATCTTCCATTGCAGCTGTA (–635)
CTGAATTTTAGAAGGTAACGTCGACATctag; and
(v) (–667)GCTAGACTTAAAATCTTCCATTGCAGCTGTAAACAC (–632)
CGATCTGAATTTTAGAAGGTAACGTCGACATTTGTG
The small letters indicate linker nucleotides.
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Results and Discussion
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To determine whether the CD25 promoter is a target for NF-AT, we cotransfected a CD25 promoter–driven luciferase reporter gene with NF-ATp– and NF-ATc–specific expression vectors into El4 T and 293 cells. Treatment of 293 cells with TPA plus ionomycin (T+I) led to a <2-fold, and treatment of El4 cells with T+Con A led to an 8–9-fold, induction of activity of CD25 promoter spanning the nucleotides up to position –2556 (4), and to a 12-fold induction of a shorter CD25 promoter reaching up to –800. Cotransfection of an NF-ATp expression vector into El4 cells resulted in a strong, 40-fold induction of activity of the longer CD25 promoter and in an up to 60-fold induction of the shorter CD25 promoter fragment after T+Con A treatment of cells (Fig. 1). Cotransfection with the NF-ATc vector gave rise to only a slight increase in promoter activity. In 293 cells, the overexpression of both NF-AT factors resulted in a six- to ninefold increase in CD25 promoter activity (Fig. 1).
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