PRESENCE OF AN ESTRADIOL RESPONSE REGION IN THE MOUSE C-FOS ONCOGENE

We have previously shown that the intracellular content of c-fos mRNA is rapidly induced (within 1 to 3 hours) in ovariectomized rat or mouse uteri following administration of estradiol. This induction is sensitive to actinomycin D but not to protein synthesis inhibitor puromycin, indicating an effect of estradiol at the transcriptional level, possibly mediated by the estrogen receptor. We have used transient transfection assays with defined regions of the mouse c-fos gene ligated to a reporter plasmid expressing chloramphenicol acetyl transferase to study regulation of this gene by estrogens. These recombinants were transfected in two different estrogen-responsive cell lines, GH4 and MCF-7, and stimulated with estradiol. A two- to five-fold induction of chloramphenicol acetyl transferase activity was observed with a construct containing the intact c-fos promoter and 351 bases of 5'-flanking sequence (-351/+44). A similar induction by estrogen is observed with the endogenous c-fos gene in the two cell lines as determined by RNA blot analysis. Estrogen induction is lost when a construct containing -135/+44 region of the c-fos gene is transfected. Plasmid containing the consensus estrogen response element GGTCAnnnTGACC derived from vitellogenin gene is induced 10- to 50-fold in both estrogen-responsive cell lines. Under identical conditions, the oligonucleotide containing the perfect palindrome GGTCTnnnAGACC, present around the -209 region of the c-fos gene, is completely silent when transfected under the control of thymidine kinase promoter. Additional transfection analysis with a number of c-fos promoter constructs has narrowed the estrogen response region to within the -278 to -135 region upstream of the c-fos promoter.