Egr-1 is activated in endothelial cells exposed to fluid shear stress and interacts with a novel shear-stress-response element in the PDGF A-chain promoter.

Exposure of vascular endothelial cells to fluid mechanical forces can modulate the expression of many genes involved in vascular physiology and pathophysiology. Here, we report that platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) A-chain gene expression is induced at the level of transcription in cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells exposed to a physiologic level of steady laminar shear stress (10 dyn/cm2). 5' Deletion analysis of the human PDGF-A promoter revealed that a GC-rich region near the TATA box was required for shear-inducible reporter gene expression. This element conferred shear inducibility onto a heterologous promoter-reporter construct that was otherwise unresponsive to shear stress. The induction of PDGF-A expression by shear was preceded by rapid and transient induction in the expression of the immediate-early gene, egr-1, which binds to GC-rich sequences. Gel shift studies indicated that shear-induced Egr-1 bound to the proximal PDGF-A promoter in a specific and time-dependent manner, displacing Sp1 from their overlapping recognition elements. Overlapping consensus binding sites for Egr-1 and Sp1 also appear in the proximal promoters of several other endothelial genes, including transforming growth factor-beta 1 and tissue factor, whose expression is modulated by shear stress. These findings define the Egr-1 binding site in the proximal PDGF-A promoter as a shear-stress-responsive element and suggest that shear-stimulated Egr-1 gene expression may be a unifying theme in the induction of various other endothelial genes exposed to biomechanical forces.