Conditions providing enhanced transfection efficiency in rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cells permit analysis of the activity of the far-upstream and proximal promoter of the brain creatine kinase gene.

While brain creatine kinase (CKB) is expressed at highest levels in the brain, where it functions in regenerating ATP, the gene elements and protein factors regulating CKB transcription in neuronal and glial cells have not been identified. To investigate the regulation of CKB in neuronal cells, we examined the expression of the promoter proximal and 5' far-upstream regions of the rat CKB gene transiently transfected into rat PC12 pheochromocytoma cells. Initially, these experiments were hampered by the extremely low transfection efficiency of PC12 cells. We increased efficiency by greater than 200-fold by employing CaPO4-precipitated DNA transfection into PC12 cells which were optimized for transient transfection by: (i) culturing cells in polylysine-coated dishes to insure attachment throughout transfection; (ii) exposing cells to transfected DNA for an optimal time and employing a glycerol shock; and, most importantly, (iii) dissociating the characteristic self-adhesive clumps of PC12 into mostly single cells. Use of the plasmid expressing green fluorescent protein allowed identification of the transfected cells that averaged 10-20% of the total. Analyses of CKB promoter-CAT gene constructs showed that in PC12 cells expression of the proximal (0.2 kb) CKB promoter was low while expression of the 1.4 kb promoter was three fold higher and the 2.9 kb promoter was ten fold higher, suggesting the presence of at least two upstream cis-acting, positive regulatory elements. In agreement, the steady-state CKB mRNA level was higher in PC12 than in other neuronal cell lines examined, possibly reflecting the effects of positive upstream factors. The results are discussed in relation to how this economical and straightforward transfection procedure may be useful in identify factors regulating the transcription of CKB and other genes expressed in neuronal cells.