Biomedical subjects
P Shockett
Publications and source records attributed to P Shockett.
A modified tetracycline-regulated system provides autoregulatory, inducible gene expression in cultured cells and transgenic mice.
A system for tetracycline-regulated inducible gene expression was described recently which relies on constitutive expression of a tetracycline-controlled transactivator (tTA) fusion protein combining the tetracycline repressor and the transcriptional activation domain of VP16 [Gossen, M. & Bujard, H. (1992) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89, 5547-5551]. This system yielded only low levels of transactivator protein, probably because tTA is toxic. To avoid this difficulty, we placed the tTA gene under the control of the inducible promoter to which tTA binds, making expression of tTA itself inducible and autoregulatory. When used to drive expression of the recombination activating genes 1 and 2 (RAG-1 and RAG-2), the autoregulatory system yielded both substantially higher levels of variable (diversity) joining [V(D)J] recombination activity (70-fold on average) and inducible expression in a much larger fraction of transfected cells (autoregulatory, 90%, vs. constitutive, 18%). In addition, this system allowed the creation of transgenic mice in which expression of a luciferase transgene was inducible tens to hundreds of times the basal levels in most tissues examined. Induced levels of expression were highest in thymus and lung and appear to be substantially higher than in previously reported inducible luciferase transgenic mice created with the constitutive system. With the modified system, inducible transactivator mRNA and protein were easily detected in cell lines by RNA and Western blotting, and transactivator mRNA was detected by RNA blotting in some tissues of transgenic mice. This autoregulatory system represents an improved strategy for tetracycline-regulated gene expression both in cultured cells and in transgenic animals.
Inhibitors of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase increase antibody class switching.
Previous studies suggest that heavy chain isotype switch (S) recombination is directed by cytokine-induced transcription of the unrearranged CH gene before recombination. In studies aimed at identifying other signaling pathways that promote switching, we discovered that inhibitors of the nuclear enzyme poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) increase LPS-induced switching to IgA in the B cell lymphoma 1.29 mu and to IgG1 in LPS + IL-4-treated splenic B cells. PARP, which binds to and is activated by DNA strand breaks, catalyzes the removal of ADP-ribose from NAD+ and poly(ADP-ribosylation) of chromatin-associated acceptor proteins. This enzyme is believed to function in cellular processes involving DNA strand breaks as well as in modulating chromatin structure. In 1.29 mu cells, PARP inhibitors increase IgA switching by day 2 and cause a fivefold increase in switching on day 3 as assayed by immunofluorescence microscopy. In spleen B cells, the PARP inhibitor nicotinamide increases IgG1 switching by about twofold. Nicotinamide also causes a reduced intensity of hybridization of C mu- and C alpha-specific probes to genomic DNA fragments containing the expressed VDJ-C mu and the unrearranged S alpha-C alpha segments, respectively, in 1.29 mu cells, indicating that PARP inhibition increases rearrangement of these fragments. Induction of switching by PARP inhibitors is not mimicked by treatment with cAMP analogues or reduced by inhibitors of protein kinase A. Induction of switching by PARP inhibitors does not appear to involve increased levels of transcription of the unrearranged C alpha gene.
Regulation of transcription of the germline immunoglobulin alpha constant region gene.
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Effect of cytokines on switching to IgA and alpha germline transcripts in the B lymphoma I.29 mu. Transforming growth factor-beta activates transcription of the unrearranged C alpha gene.
H chain isotype switch recombination is preceded by the appearance of RNA initiating 5' of the specific switch region that will undergo recombination. In an effort to understand the potential function of germline transcripts in switch recombination and whether the regulation of germline transcripts correlates with the regulation of switching, we are studying this process in the murine B lymphoma cell line I.29 mu, which switches, after treatment with bacterial LPS, primarily to IgA and less frequently to IgE. Levels of alpha germline transcripts initiating upstream of alpha switch (S alpha) sequences are elevated in clones of this line that switch well, compared with clones that switch less frequently. Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) has been shown to increase alpha germline transcripts and switching to IgA expression in LPS-stimulated murine splenic B cells. We now demonstrate that TGF-beta increases LPS-induced switching to IgA by 10-fold at optimal doses and increases the level of alpha germline transcripts 5- to 9-fold in I.29 mu cells. Nuclear run-on analysis shows that this increase is at the level of transcription. Thus, TGF-beta appears to direct switching to IgA by inducing transcription from the unrearranged S alpha-C alpha DNA segment. Germline alpha RNA is quite stable in I.29 mu cells, having a half-life of about 5 h, and we find no evidence for further stabilization in the presence of TGF-beta. Levels of epsilon germline transcripts are decreased by TGF-beta treatment. IL-4, which modestly increases switching in I.29 mu cells, slightly increases transcription of alpha germline RNA. IFN-gamma, which reduces switching to IgA in these cells, also reduces the level of alpha germline transcripts. IFN-gamma also reduces the level of epsilon germline transcripts induced by IL-4. Our results support the hypothesis that the regulation of transcription of particular switch sequences by cytokines regulates the specificity of recombination. We also present evidence that IL-4 may provide other signals, distinct from transcriptional targeting, that increase LPS-induced switching to IgA.
Regulation of the antibody class switch to IgA.
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