Mouse decay-accelerating factor: selective and tissue-specific induction by estrogen of the gene encoding the glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored form.

Neonatal exposure of mice to estrogen (diethylstilbestrol) results in a high incidence (90%) of uterine tumor later in life. In an effort to screen for estrogen-regulated genes in the uterus of the neonatal mouse, we have isolated a murine homologue of the human decay-accelerating factor (DAF), a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored membrane glycoprotein and a member of the regulators of complement activation family of proteins that function to prevent autologous complement-mediated tissue damage. The induced mouse DAF cDNA has a 64% sequence identity with the human counterpart at the nucleotide level and a 50% identity in the deduced amino acid sequence. It consists of 390 amino acids and contains four short consensus repeats of internal homology characteristic of human DAF. It also contains a hydrophobic C-terminal that most likely serves as a signal for GPI anchor attachment. Sequence comparison with the recently reported mouse DAF cDNAs confirmed that the estrogen-inducible gene corresponds to the mouse GPI DAF gene. The induction of mouse DAF by estrogen is tissue specific and can be mimicked by the antiestrogen tamoxifen. Furthermore, the regulation of uterine DAF expression by estrogen is limited to the GPI DAF gene. The transmembrane DAF gene is not expressed in the mouse uterus, either with or without estrogen stimulation. These results suggest that the two mouse DAF genes are differentially regulated, and that the GPI-anchored DAF may play important roles in estrogen responses and other physiologic or pathophysiologic processes of the female reproductive system.