Dexamethasone stimulation of rat insulin-like growth factor binding protein-1 promoter activity involves multiple cis-elements.

Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1) modulates the mitogenic actions of IGF-I and IGF-II. Dexamethasone increases IGFBP-1 mRNA abundance and gene transcription in rat liver and in H4-II-E rat hepatoma cells. A glucocorticoid response element (GRE) located at nucleotide (nt) -91/-77 is required for dexamethasone to stimulate rat IGFBP-1 promoter activity in transient transfection assays in H4-II-E cells. Mutagenesis of nt -108/-99 (the M4 region of the insulin response element), however, decreased dexamethasone-stimulated promoter activity despite the presence of an intact GRE, suggesting that regulatory sites in addition to the GRE were required for optimal dexamethasone stimulation. To identify these sites, we introduced 5'-deletion and substitution mutations into rat IGFBP-1 promoter fragments coupled to a luciferase reporter gene and transfected these constructs into H4-II-E cells. Three sites are required for optimal basal promoter activity: a site (nt -62/-50) that binds the liver-enriched transcription factor, hepatocyte nuclear factor-1 (HNF-1), the M4 site, and a putative binding site for transcription factor AP-2 (nt -293/-286). The HNF-1 and M4 sites and an upstream site (nt -252/-236) are also involved in dexamethasone stimulation under some, but not all, circumstances. Mutation of either the HNF-1 site or the M4 site decreased dexamethasone stimulation by more than 80% in constructs whose 5'-end was at nt -92, -135, or -235 but not if the 5' -end was at nt -278 or -327. These results suggest that the nt -278/-236 region can compensate for the loss of the HNF-1 site or the M4 site but that the HNF-1 and M4 sites do not compensate for each other in constructs whose 5'-end was at nt -135 or -235, which lack the nt -278/-236 region. The site within the nt -278/-236 region was localized to nt -252/-236 by deoxyribonuclease I protection and transfection assays. Thus, several cis-elements in the rat IGFBP-1 promoter cooperate, in varying combinations, with the low-affinity GRE to allow optimal dexamethasone-stimulated promoter activity.