Endothelial-Cell-Specific Regulation of von Willebrand Factor Gene Expression

Abstract

In both tissue sections and cell culture, the endothelial nature of a cell is most commonly determined by demonstration of its expression of von Willebrand factor (vWf) protein and/or mRNA. Thus, the mechanism of cell-type-specific transcriptional regulation of the vWf gene is central to studying the basis of endothelial-cell-specific gene expression. In this study, deletion analyses were carried out to identify the region of the vWf gene which regulates its endothelial-cell-specific expression. A 734-bp fragment which spans the sequence from -487 to +247 relative to the transcription start site was identified as the cell-type-specific promoter. It consists of a minimal core promoter located between -90 and +22, a strong negative regulatory element located upstream of the core promoter (ca. -500 to -300), and a positive regulatory region located downstream of the core promoter in the first exon. The activity of the core promoter is not cell type specific, and the negative regulatory region is required to inhibit its activity in all cell types. The positive regulatory region relieves this inhibition only in endothelial cells and results in endothelial-cell-specific gene expression. The positive regulatory region contains sequences predicting possible SP1, GATA, and octamer binding sites. Mutations in either the SP1 or octamer sequence have no effect on transcriptional activity, while mutation in the GATA binding element totally abolishes the promoter activity. Evidence that a GATA factor is involved in this interaction is presented. Thus, the positive regulatory region with an intact GATA binding site is required to overcome the inhibitory effect of the negative regulatory element and activate vWf gene expression in an endothelial-cell-specific manner.