The Oct DNA motif participates in the alcohol inhibition of the inducible nitric oxide synthase gene promoter in rat C6 glioma cells.

Induction of nitric oxide synthase-2 (iNOS) by cytokines and bacterial products is associated with protein binding at the proximal promoter and in an upstream enhancer region of the Nos2 gene. To clarify how ethanol suppresses rat iNOS activity, we constructed several deletion mutants of the Nos2 promoter fused to the luciferase gene and transfected the constructs into C6 glial cells. Acute ethanol exposure of stably transfected cells for 24 h inhibits induced activity of Nos2 promoter constructs containing deletions in the 5' flanking region, including a 94 bp promoter that lacks any known NF-kappaB site but which carries a C/EBPbeta and overlapping gamma-IRE, GAS and Oct motifs. Ethanol failed to inhibit the endogenous activity of a smaller, 78 bp promoter that lacks the C/EBPbeta and overlapping, gamma-IRE and GAS motifs and showed no inducible activity. As another approach, in vivo DNA footprinting was used and identified protein protections at five regions of the proximal Nos2 promoter in induced cells. Exposure to acute ethanol diminished protein occupation in the five promoter regions including the gamma-IRE/NF-kappaB and the overlapping gamma-IRE/GAS/Oct sites. Site-directed mutagenesis in the octamer domain of the gamma-IRE/GAS/Oct motifs was studied in a 1002 bp promoter to examine its role in ethanol inhibition of cytokine and lipopolysaccharide induced activity. The data indicate that ethanol failed to inhibit promoter activity when the Oct motif is missing. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays performed using a 22-mer probe containing the overlapping gamma-IRE/GAS/Oct sites showed three complexes with one of the complexes being competed by an octamer-1 antibody. These observations demonstrate the role of protein-DNA binding at the core promoter, and the likely involvement of the octamer motif, in ethanol modulation of cytokine and lipopolysaccharide induced iNOS expression.

Effects of mechanistically distinct NF-kappaB inhibitors on glial inducible nitric-oxide synthase expression.

Nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB is an important regulator of inflammatory gene expression. Transcriptional regulation of Nos2, the inducible nitric-oxide synthase (iNOS) gene, is complex and not fully understood, but appears to be regulated in part by NF-kappaB. To further understand the role of NF-kappaB in Nos2 expression, we compared three functionally distinct NF-kappaB inhibitors on NF-kappaB transactivation and iNOS induction by rat C6 glial cells. Cytokine-induced activation of a consensus NF-kappaB-reporter gene was concentration-dependently inhibited by BAY 11-7082, MG-132, and helenalin. The rank order of potency was MG-132>helenalin>BAY 11-7082, with low concentrations of helenalin stimulating reporter gene activity. Cytokine-stimulated iNOS expression, measured by nitrite accumulation and in vitro l-citrulline production, was similarly reduced by exposing C6 cells to the NF-kappaB inhibitors. Surprisingly, activation of Nos2-reporter gene constructs containing the proximal 188 bp (containing one kappaB site) or proximal 94 bp (no kappaB site) of the rat promoter also was inhibited with the same rank order of potency. Interestingly, low concentrations of helenalin increased activity of both promoter constructs, while BAY 11-7082 poorly inhibited the 94-bp activity. This is the first report describing BAY 11-7082 and helenalin effects on iNOS expression in astroglia. Given the reported mechanism of actions for these inhibitors, cytokine-induced glial iNOS expression appears more sensitive to disruption of proteasome degradation and p65 function than modulation of IkappaB phosphorylation. These findings may foster the design of therapeutic agents aimed at NF-kappaB-associated pathways involved in neuroinflammation, especially iNOS expression.

Identification of cis-regulatory regions necessary for robust Nos2 promoter activity in glial cells: indirect role for NF-kappaB.

Previous reports suggest the nitric-oxide synthase 2 (Nos2) promoter contains negative and positive cis-regulatory regions. This study identified such regions using rat C6 glial cells. Activity of the serially deleted rat Nos2 promoter fused to a luciferase reporter gene was found to vary with construct size independent of stimuli, decreasing markedly from 160 to 130 bp then increasing significantly from 110 to 94 bp. In contrast, time to peak activity was stimulus-dependent but size-independent; 4-8 h for a cytokine mixture or lipopolysaccharide + interferon-gamma, and 8-16 h for lipopolysaccharide + phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate. Peak activity with heterologous promoters also varied; 4 h for 3.7 kb of the human Nos2A promoter, and 36 h for 1.8 kb of the murine promoter. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays and in vivo DNA footprinting data confirmed nuclear protein binding to promoter regions suspected of containing important regulatory sites based on reporter gene data. A binding site for NF-kappaB was not required for Nos2 promoter activity. These findings provide significant new information on the relative importance of different regions of the rat Nos2 promoter for transcriptional activation and nitric oxide production by glial cells and support the existence of cell- and species-specific mechanisms for transcriptional regulation of Nos2 activation.