Myosin heavy chain synthesis is independently regulated in hypertrophy and atrophy of isolated adult cardiac myocytes.

Hypertrophy of isolated adult feline cardiac muscle cells may be induced in culture by either alpha- or beta-adrenergic agonists. However, it has been shown previously that each of these agonists activate different subsets of immediate-early response genes and have different effects on expression of "fetal" protein isoforms and stimulation of protein synthesis. Moreover, in adult feline heart cells, beta-adrenergic agonists, such as isoproterenol, activate sustained synchronous beating and sarcomeric reorganization while alpha-adrenergic agonists, such as phenylephrine, do not. The objective of the present study was to determine whether these differences in proximal signaling events converged in a common signal pathway during activation of contractile protein synthesis. By direct comparisons of actin and myosin heavy chain (HC) synthesis and accumulation following isoproterenol and phenylephrine, it was determined that both agonists stimulate a coordinated accumulation of these proteins during cardiomyocyte growth. However, each agonist stimulated a very different program of contractile protein synthesis. During phenylephrine-induced hypertrophy, actin and myosin HC syntheses were rapidly and coordinately activated and continuously maintained at rates 10-25% greater than untreated cultures. The pattern of myosin HC synthesis following isoproterenol was very much more complex with periods during which it was as much as 40% greater or 25% less than in control cultures. Furthermore, there was no correlation between rates of actin and myosin HC synthesis following isoproterenol. It was concluded that actin and myosin HC syntheses and accumulation were regulated independently and in a very different manner following isoproterenol or phenylephrine. Since protein accumulation was not correlated with synthesis rates during development of hypertrophy, it was also concluded that post-translational mechanisms played a significant role in the maintenance of contractile protein stoichiometry during beta-adrenergic/beating-induced hypertrophy. Myosin HC synthesis also appeared to be independently regulated during cardiomyocyte atrophy induced by the calcium channel blocker nifedipine. Unlike the case in hypertrophy, however, protein balance was not maintained in nifedipine, and the depression of myosin HC synthesis and loss of myosin HC content were much greater than in the case of other contractile proteins.

Regulation of hypertrophy and atrophy in cultured adult heart cells.

Mechanical loading and alpha-adrenergic receptor stimulation have both been shown to induce hypertrophy in isolated neonatal heart cells. The present study examined the effects of adrenergic hormones and contractile activity on the hypertrophic response in isolated adult feline cardiomyocytes maintained for more than 14 days in insulin- and serum-supplemented medium. Measurements of the hypertrophic response included cell size, total protein content, myosin heavy chain content, and the time course of activation of increased protein synthesis. Reactivation of the "fetal" gene program was evaluated by secretion of atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) into the medium. Significant myocyte hypertrophy was induced in both quiescent myocytes treated with alpha 1-adrenergic agonists and in beating myocytes treated with beta-adrenergic agonists. However, there were both quantitative and qualitative differences in the response to each type of stimulation. alpha-Adrenergic agonists promoted an increase in cell size, protein content, and ANF secretion but not myofibrillar reorganization, which was observed only in beating myocytes. In contrast to results reported for neonatal heart cells, determinants of hypertrophy in beating myocytes exceeded those in nonbeating alpha 1-adrenergic agonist-treated heart cells in every parameter examined. In addition, in the case of both beating and alpha-adrenergic stimulation, there were marked time-dependent variations in rates of protein synthesis over the interval of 4 hours to 7 days of treatment with each type of stimulus. Differences were also encountered in correlations between rates of protein synthesis and protein accumulation over this interval. The effect of beating was particularly important both to the reorganization of myofibrillar structure and the metabolism of myosin heavy chain. In cultures in which beating was inhibited with the calcium channel antagonist nifedipine, the loss of myosin heavy chain was significantly greater than that of total protein.

Analysis of differential HLA-DQB expression in autologous B cell lines.

Class II major histocompatibility complex genes are differentially expressed during cellular activation and differentiation, often in a locus-specific manner. We investigated the differential expression of the HLA-DQB gene, using B cell lines LAZ221 and LAZ388: LAZ221, derived from an early B cell leukemia, expresses HLA-DR but not HLA-DQ: LAZ388, the autologous Epstein-Barr virus-transformed B cell line, expresses both DR and DQ. Transfection experiments demonstrate differential function of class II gene upstream regulatory regions in the two lines, which correlates with differential class II gene expression. Using gel retardation and DNase I footprint assays, we demonstrate that absence of DQB gene expression is associated with characteristic nuclear protein-binding interactions in the proximal DQB gene upstream regulatory region. These interactions are visualized as DNA-protein complexes that are seen with nuclear proteins from the DQ-negative cell line, LAZ221, and involve consensus promoter Y box and W box elements, as well as novel upstream sites. Transcriptional regulatory proteins that differ in these autologous B cell lines may be stage-specific factors involved in the developmental regulation of HLA genes.

Differential expression of related HLA class II DQ beta genes caused by nucleotide variation in transcriptional regulatory elements.

HLA class II genes comprise a large multigene family with intra- and interlocus variation in structure and expression. Within this family of related genes, the HLA-DX alpha and beta loci (HLA DQA2 and DQB2) are highly homologous to functional HLA-DQ loci (HLA DQA1 and DQB1) but are frequently termed pseudogenes because DX gene transcription has not been observed, even in cells expressing HLA-DQ. Analysis of upstream transcriptional regulatory elements for the DX beta and DQ beta genes identified a high degree of nucleotide homology, consistent with their derivation from a common ancestral class II gene. However, transient expression assays with plasmids utilizing promoter elements from the DX beta gene had no activity in transfected human B cells, in contrast to homologous DQ beta sequences. Reciprocal exchange of specific sequences from the DQ beta gene with those of the DX beta gene restored expression to wild-type DQ beta levels, as did mutagenesis of only three DX-specific nucleotides in the upstream regulatory region. These three nucleotides mark two binding sites for distinct nuclear DNA-binding proteins that differentially recognize DQ beta and DX beta sequences. Transcription of these genes is critically dependent on interactions between these two upstream regulatory region sites which distinguish DX beta from its closely related homologue, DQ beta.

Immature transformed rat islet beta-cells differentially express C-peptides derived from the genes coding for insulin I and II as well as a transfected human insulin gene.

Synthetic peptides representing unique sequences in rat proinsulin C-peptide I and II were used to generate highly specific antisera, which, when applied on sections of normal rat pancreas, confirm a homogeneous coexpression of the two C-peptides in all islet beta-cells. Insulin gene expression is induced in the transformed heterogeneous rat islet cell clone, NHI-6F, by transient in vivo passage. During this process a transfected human insulin gene is coactivated with the endogenous nonallelic rat insulin I and II genes. Newly established cultures from NHI-6F insulinomas having a high frequency of insulin-producing cells showed highly differential expression at the cellular level of the three proinsulin C-peptide immunoreactivities, as follows: C-peptide I greater than human C-peptide greater than C-peptide II. The fractions of cells expressing human C-peptide and C-peptide II decreased in time and were absent after more than 50 successive passages, while a C-peptide I-producing population was still present. Double-labeling experiments revealed a heterogeneous distribution of the three different C-peptides. Surprisingly, in the early passages a large fraction of cells would express only a single species of proinsulin-C-peptide immunoreactivity but still at high levels. However, rat C-peptide II and human C-peptide were often colocalized, even in later passages. In situ hybridization studies combined with the immunocytochemical data suggest that the differential expression occurs at the level of transcription.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Allelic polymorphism in transcriptional regulatory regions of HLA-DQB genes.

Class II genes of the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) are highly polymorphic. Allelic variation of structural genes provides diversity in immune cell interactions, contributing to the formation of the T cell repertoire and to susceptibility to certain autoimmune diseases. We now report that allelic polymorphism also exists in the promoter and upstream regulatory regions (URR) of human histocompatibility leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II genes. Nucleotide sequencing of these regulatory regions of seven alleles of the DQB locus reveals a number of allele-specific polymorphisms, some of which lie in functionally critical consensus regions thought to be highly conserved in class II promoters. These sequence differences also correspond to allelic differences in binding of nuclear proteins to the URR. Fragments of the URR of two DQB alleles were analyzed for binding to nuclear proteins extracted from human B lymphoblastoid cell lines (B-LCL). Gel retardation assays showed substantially different banding patterns to the two promoters, including prominent variation in nuclear protein binding to the partially conserved X box regions and a novel upstream polymorphic sequence element. Comparison of these two polymorphic alleles in a transient expression system demonstrated a marked difference in their promoter strengths determined by relative abilities to initiate transcription of the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene in human B-LCL. Shuttling of URR sequences between alleles showed that functional variation corresponded to both the X box and upstream sequence polymorphic sites. These findings identify an important source of MHC class II diversity, and suggest the possibility that such regulatory region polymorphisms may confer allelic differences in expression, inducibility, and/or tissue specificity of class II molecules.

Molecular characterization of size and copy number of the human insulin gene in transfected rat islet tumor cell clones.

Two stable transfectants, NHI-6F and NHI-5B, obtained by cotransfection of the human insulin gene (a 15 kb EcoRI genomic fragment) with pSV2-neo into MSL-cells (pluripotent rat islet tumor cells), were characterized with regard to copy number and size of the inserted human sequences by Southern blot analyses using appropriate restriction enzymes. Digestion of total genomic DNA from the NHI-6F clone with EcoRI, SacI and BglII gave in all cases single human insulin gene fragments of 25 kb, 28 kb and 11 kb, respectively. From these data we were able to conclude that NHI-6F carries a single copy of the human insulin gene and that this copy has at least retained the 5' BglI and the 3' BglII flanking sites of human origin. Digestion of NHI-5B DNA gave a different banding pattern compared to NHI-6F (EcoRI: 20 kb; SacI: 7.8 kb; BglII: 11 kb). These data indicate the presence of a single human insulin gene copy in clone NHI-5B with the preservation of the 5' SacI and 3' BglII human flanking sites. In conclusion, the two transfected rat islet tumor clones, NHI-6F and -5B, carry a single copy of the human insulin gene. Each copy is presumably functionally active since known promoter and enhancer elements reside within 400 bp 5' to the gene. NHI-6F and -5B carry 2,500 bp and 4,500 bp 5' to the gene, respectively.

Tissue-specific expression of transfected human insulin genes in pluripotent clonal rat insulinoma lines induced during passage in vivo.

The pluripotent rat islet tumor cell line MSL-G2 expresses primarily glucagon or cholecystokinin and not insulin in vitro but changes phenotype completely after prolonged in vivo cultivation to yield small-sized hypoglycemic tumors composed almost entirely of insulin-producing beta cells. When a genomic DNA fragment containing the coding and upstream regulatory regions of the human insulin gene was stably transfected into MSL-G2 cells no measurable amounts of insulin or insulin mRNA were detected in vitro. However, successive transplantation of two transfected clones resulted in hypoglycemic tumors that efficiently coexpressed human and rat insulin as determined by human C-peptide-specific immunoreagents. These results demonstrate that cis-acting tissue-specific insulin gene enhancer elements are conserved between rat and human insulin genes. We propose that the in vivo differentiation of MSL-G2 cells and transfected subclones into insulin-producing cells reflects processes of natural beta-cell ontogeny leading to insulin gene expression.