ABSTRACT
Aryl hydrocarbon receptor repressor (AhRR) suppressed, in a ligand independent manner, the ability of estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) to enhance the transcription of heterologous estrogen-responsive reporter plasmids in transient transfection assays, as well as of endogenous estrogen-responsive genes in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells. AhRR repressed ERalpha-mediated trans-activation by interfering allosterically with the ligand-independent function of AF-1. The direct interaction between AhRR and ERalpha at the multipartite binding site of ERalpha, which ranges from a DNA binding domain to a ligand binding domain, but did not include the AF-1 moiety was confirmed by a coimmunoprecipitation assay. The AhRR/ERalpha complex was formed in the nuclear compartment and was entrapped by a cis-element in the promoter of E2-responsive genes, as determined in a chromatin immunoprecipitation assay. AhRR might play a role of co-repressor on the transcriptional activity of the ERalpha homodimer.
Subject(s)
Estrogen Receptor alpha/metabolism , Gene Expression Regulation , Receptors, Aryl Hydrocarbon/antagonists & inhibitors , Repressor Proteins/metabolism , Transcription, Genetic , Animals , Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors , Breast Neoplasms , Cell Line, Tumor , Cell Nucleus/metabolism , Estrogen Receptor alpha/genetics , Estrogens/metabolism , Female , Humans , Receptors, Aryl Hydrocarbon/metabolism , Receptors, Interferon/genetics , Receptors, Interferon/metabolism , Repressor Proteins/geneticsABSTRACT
Two members of the 'AhR family' (a family which is part of the bHLH-PAS superfamily), aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and AhR repressor (AhRR), originated from a common ancestor and form a regulatory circuit in xenobiotic signal transduction. AhRR is a nucleocytoplasmic shuttle protein, harboring both a nuclear localization signal (NLS) and a nuclear export signal (NES). Because NLS is dominant over NES, AhRR resides predominantly in the nuclear compartment. The NES of AhRR resembles that of AhR in sensitivity to leptomycin B, whereas the NLS of AhRR is monopartite and is, therefore, distinguished from the reported bipartite NLS of AhR. The NLS deletion mutant of GFP-AhRR was transported into the nuclear compartment in the presence of AhR nuclear translocator (Arnt), suggesting the assembly of an AhRR/Arnt heterodimer complex in the cytoplasmic compartment and Arnt-dependent nuclear translocation of this complex.
Subject(s)
Active Transport, Cell Nucleus/physiology , Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Nuclear Translocator/metabolism , Cell Nucleus/metabolism , Nuclear Localization Signals/metabolism , Nucleocytoplasmic Transport Proteins/metabolism , Receptors, Aryl Hydrocarbon/metabolism , Repressor Proteins/metabolism , Animals , Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors , COS Cells , Chlorocebus aethiops , HumansABSTRACT
The variant cell lines stably expressing aryl hydrocarbon receptor repressor (AhRR), MCFRR1 and MCFRR4, were established from human breast cancer MCF-7 cells by transfecting with AhRR-expression construct followed by selection, in order to analyze the effect of AhRR on the cell growth and expression of cell cycle-related genes. The variant cells showed higher levels of AhRR mRNA compared with the parental cells. MCFRR4 cells grew slowly compared with MCF-7 in both cell number and proliferation rate measured by the MTS method. Among cell cycle-related genes such as E2F, cyclin E1, cyclin D1, PCNA, p53, Rb, c-myc and p27Kip1, and estrogen responsive genes such as cathepsin D and hsp27, the expression levels of E2F, cyclin E1, PCNA and cathepsin D mRNA in MCFRR4 cells were lower than those in MCF-7 cells, while those of Rb, p27Kip1, c-myc and hsp27 mRNA were not significantly affected and that of cyclin D1 mRNA was enhanced in variant cells. Based on these results, AhRR might be suppressive on cell growth of MCF-7 by disturbing the transcriptional and/or posttranscriptional regulations of estrogen-responsive and cell cycle-related genes.
