AJP - Cell Physiology, Vol 271, Issue 5 C1750-C1756, Copyright © 1996 by American Physiological Society

ARTICLES

Negative regulation of the rat Na-K-ATPase alpha 3-subunit gene promoter by thyroid hormone

H. He, S. Chin, K. Zhuang, R. Hartong, J. Apriletti and G. Gick
Department of Biochemistry, State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn 11203, USA.

Na-K-ATPase alpha 3-subunit mRNA levels are both positively and negatively controlled by thyroid hormone [3,5,3'triiodothyronine (T3)] in primary cultures of neonatal rat cardiac myocytes. In this study, transient transfection analysis indicated that two regions of the rat alpha 3 gene between nucleotides -116 and -6 and -6 and +80 conferred T3-mediated inhibition of reporter gene expression. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed specific binding of T3 receptor monomers and T3 receptor-retinoid X receptor heterodimers at each alpha 3 gene negative T3-response region. The alpha 3 gene region from -116 to -6 base pairs also mediates repression in response to retinoic acid (RA) and binds RA receptor. In the absence of ligand, reporter gene expression driven by the -116 to -6-base pair region is repressed with cotransfection of T3 receptor, whereas it is unaffected by overexpression of RA receptor. These data demonstrate that the proximal promoter of the rat Na-K-ATPase alpha 3 gene contains sequence motifs that mediate repression of alpha 3 gene transcription in response to either T3 or RA in neonatal rat cardiac myocytes.