Transcriptional activity analysis of promoter region of human PAX9 gene under retinoic acid, dexamethasone and ergocalciferol treatment in MCF-7 and MDPC23 cells

Author(s)

Liza Lima Ramenzoni

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Piracicaba, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Odontologia de Piracicaba
• Defense date: 2009-11-12

Examining board members

Sergio Roberto Peres Line; Raquel Mantuaneli Scarel Caminaga; Maria Cristina Leme Godoy dos Santos; Daniel Saito; Ana Paula de Souza

• Advisor: Sergio Roberto Peres Line

Abstract

PAX9, member of the family homeobox, has important functions in embryogenesis and it is widely expressed in various craniofacial tissues during development. PAX9 mutations in human families cause autosomal dominant oligodontia, characterized by the absence of permanent molars and pre-molars. A great variety of physiological or pharmacological environmental factors may have impact on downstream signaling cascades and transcriptional regulation of gene modulating transcription factors. This work focused on the analysis on the 5'-flanking region of the PAX9 gene studying the influence of retinoic acid, dexamethasone and vitamin D on the expression of PAX9 by expression constructs that carry the reporter gene luciferase (Photinus pyralis, pGL3 basic vector). In the present study, we have PCR amplified cDNAs encoding mouse Pax9 from Mouse Odontoblast Cell-Like-23 (MDPC23) and PAX9 from Human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) and quantified by Quantitative PCR. We examined the transcriptional activity of human PAX9 promoter from constructions: 1) PAX9-pGL3B1 construct clone PAX9 gene promoter 1198bp from -1106 upstream to +92 downstream of translation start site (ATG). 2) PAX9-pGL3B2 construct clone PAX9 gene promoter 843bp from -751 upstream of translation start site (ATG) to +92 downstream of translation start site (ATG). 3) PAX9-pGLB3 construct clone PAX9 gene promoter 691bp from -1106 upstream of translation start site (ATG) to +92 downstream of translation start site (ATG) using deletion of 507bp in restriction sites (-645 and -138) of ApaI enzyme. These constructions were transfected into Mouse Odontoblast Cell-Like-23 (MDPC23) and PAX9 from Human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7). Cell cultures were all submitted to selective regulation of tree drugs: dexamethasone (DEX), retinoic acid (RE) and ergocalciferol (VITD2). Relative luciferase expression units were obtained by dual luciferase assay kit. The results in Human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) showed that retinoic acid and dexamethasone influenced negatively the expression of PAX9 promoter. PAX9-pGL3B1 and PAX9-pGL3B2 promoter was inhibited under the treatment of dexamethasone and ergocalciferol. Retinoic acid and dexamethasone did not altered PAX9-pGL3B3 (-1106 to +92, 507bp deleted with ApaI digest) behavior. Luciferase activity in plasmid PAX9-pGL3B2 was always weaker than the other two constructions indicating that sequence present between -1106 and -751 or 355bb were important for the transcriptional activity of PAX9 promoter. The results in Mouse Odontoblast Cell-Like-23 (MDPC23) showed that it PAX9-pGL3B1 and PAX9-pGL3B2 promoter activity was increased by the treatment of lower concentration of dexamethasone and ergocalciferol, whereas higher concentration of the same drugs decreased this activity. The effect of the retinoic acid in the luciferase activity of PAX9-pGL3B1 has the same pattern but for the PAX9-pGL3B2, all concentrations increased the promoter activity. For the PAX9-pGL3B3 construction, concentrations of ergocalciferol had a statistically significance decreasing the activity of the promoter and no effect of the activity was observed in the dexamethasone and retinoic acid treatment. In conclusion, dexamethasone, retinoic acid and ergocalciferol may bind to PAX9 gene promoter and up or down-regulate PAX9 transcriptional activity. A 507bp region (-645 and -138) within PAX9 promoter may harbor biding sites for dexamethasone and retinoic acid since none of concentrations of these reagents influenced changes in promoter activity. (AU)