Three mechanisms are involved in glucocorticoid receptor autoregulation in a human T-lymphoblast cell line

Glucocorticoids up-regulate the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in the human T-lymphoblast cell line CEM-C7. One mechanism for the up-regulation of the GR protein is the well-known up-regulation of GR transcripts. We have investigated the effect of other factors on the up-regulation. At least three promoters (1A, 1B, and 1C) exist, which give rise to GR transcripts with different exon 1 sequences. Transcripts with different exon 1 sequences have similar stabilities. Glucocorticoids have little, if any, effect on mRNA stability. In transfection experiments of the GR-deficient mouse fibroblast cell line E8.2, different exon 1 sequences furthermore caused no significant differences in the translational efficiencies of GR transcripts. However, the ratio between the concentrations of the glucocorticoid receptor B (GR-B) isoform and the glucocorticoid receptor A (GR-A) isoform was higher for transcripts containing the exon 1A3 sequence arising from promoter 1A than in transcripts containing exon 1 sequences from promoters 1B and 1C. Because the GR-B isoform is more active in transactivation then GR-A, this would tend to fine-tune glucocorticoid responsiveness of CEM-C7 cells, which express exon 1A3-containing transcripts. We also found that glucocorticoids do not decrease the stability of the GR protein in CEM-C7 cells. In contrast to other cell lines that downregulate GR expression in response to glucocorticoids, CEM-C7 lymphoblasts possess three mechanisms ensuring high glucocorticoid responsiveness: an up-regulation of GR mRNA by glucocorticoids, no destabilization of GR protein by glucocorticoids, and a high activity of promoter 1A with concomitant high expression of the GR-B isoform.