Downstream sequences mediate induction of the mouse cathepsin L promoter by phorbol esters

The major excreted protein (MEP) of mouse fibroblasts is the precursor to a lysosomal acid protease (cathepsin L) whose synthesis is induced by malignant transformation, growth factors, tumor promoters, and cyclic AMP. We have previously cloned a functional gene for MEP from NIH 3T3 cells. When subcloned into chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT) expression vectors, both 4-kilobase and 300 base pair fragments in the 5'-flanking region of the MEP gene confer CAT activity that is stimulated by cyclic AMP treatment but is not stimulated by phorbol ester treatment of NIH 3T3 cells. These fragments confer constitutive promoter activity that is comparable to that of the SV40 promoter. Primer extension, using RNA from cells transiently transfected with MEP-CAT fusion plasmids, demonstrates that phorbol ester treatment increases the amount of transcript from constructs containing both the promoter and sequences downstream of the transcription initiation site, including the first three introns, but not from constructs containing only the 5'-flanking region of the MEP gene. Nuclear run-off experiments confirm that the increase in endogenous MEP mRNA is mediated by increased transcription and not via relief of transcriptional attenuation. Since both the MEP promoter, which contains three potential binding sites for the AP-2 transcription factor, and the SV40 promoter, which contains both AP-1 and AP-2 binding sites, fail to respond to 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate in NIH 3T3 cells, these upstream motifs are not sufficient to confer phorbol ester responsiveness in NIH 3T3 cells. These results suggest that the MEP gene is regulated in a complex manner by sequences both upstream and downstream of the transcription initiation site.