Multihormonal regulation of the human, rat, and bovine growth hormone promoters: differential effects of 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate, thyroid hormone, and glucocorticoids.

We have analyzed the effects of a variety of hormones on activity of the rat GH (rGH), human GH, (hGH), and bovine GH (bGH) promoters. After transient transfection of rat pituitary tumor cells, all three promoters are induced by addition of 8-bromo-cAMP. Sequences required for the cAMP responsiveness of the hGH and rGH promoter lie within 183 base pairs of the mRNA start site. Although the rGH promoter is thyroid hormone (T3) responsive in this system, a construct containing 2.7 kilobases of the hGH promoter 5'-flanking sequences is not. Since we also found that the bGH promoter is T3 responsive in these cells, the hGH results are not likely to be due to a species specific factor required for induction in rat pituitary cells. The hGH promoter is weakly induced by dexamethasone whereas the rGH promoter does not respond to glucocorticoids. The hGH and rGH promoters are not responsive to TRH. These results illustrate the potential heterogeneity in hormonal responses of the same gene in different species.