Regulation of egr-1 gene expression by retinoic acid in a human growth factor-dependent cell line

Abstract

Retinoic acid (RA) has profound suppressive effects on growth and survival of human growth factor-dependent cell line, M07e. Treatment of M07e cells by RA reduced expression of egr-1 gene, while the levels of c-myc gene expression remained similar. Suppression of egr-1 gene expression by RA was dosage-dependent and reached maximum at 4 h after RA addition. The decay of egr-1 mRNA was similar in M07e cells treated with or without RA. The transcriptional activity of the promoter region up to -600 or -480 bp upstream of the egr-1 gene was greatly reduced by RA treatment. These data suggest that biological effects of RA on hematopoietic cells may, in part, be mediated by transcriptional suppression of egr-1 gene through its promoter region within -480 bp.