Multiple cis-acting domains mediate basal and adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate-dependent glucagon gene transcription in a mouse neuroendocrine cell line.

A number of cell and tissue-specific differences have been described in studies of the regulation of glucagon gene expression. DNA sequences important for islet cell-specific transcription are not sufficient for expression of the glucagon gene in the intestine, and the posttranslational processing of proglucagon results in the liberation of different peptides in pancreas and intestine. We have studied the control of glucagon gene expression in STC-1 cells, a mouse intestinal neuroendocrine cell line. STC-1 cells are plurihormonal and contain glucagon, somatostatin, amylin, and cholecystokinin, but not insulin mRNA transcripts. Glucagon gene expression is regulated by a cAMP-dependent pathway in STC-1 cells, with an increase in glucagon mRNA transcripts detected 2 h after forskolin stimulation. The levels of glucagon mRNA transcripts remained elevated for 36-48 h after forskolin stimulation, but cycloheximide inhibited the forskolin induction of glucagon gene expression. Although sequences up-stream of -1300 are necessary for intestine-specific glucagon gene transcription in transgenic mice, glucagon-chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) plasmids containing less than 1300 basepairs of 5'-flanking sequences were transcriptionally active in STC-1 cells. The transcriptional properties of specific DNA elements important for glucagon gene transcription in islet cells differed in STC-1 cells. Deletion of the islet cell-specific enhancer G3 element resulted in an increase in the transcriptional activity of transfected glucagon-CAT plasmids, suggesting that G3 may function as a negative element in STC-1 cells. Deletion of the cAMP response element sequence from -291 to -298 did not eliminate the forskolin induction of glucagon-CAT activity in STC-1 cells, and forskolin responsiveness was maintained with deletions containing only 60 basepairs of rat glucagon gene 5'-flanking sequences. The results of these experiments define novel functional properties for previously characterized domains within the rat glucagon gene 5'-flanking region, suggesting that mouse STC-1 cells may be a useful cell line for studies of the molecular control of glucagon gene expression.