Kinetics of repression by modified p53 on the PDGF beta-receptor promoter

Herein, we show that both exogenously transfected and endogenously activated p53 repress promoter activity and expression of PDGFRB. p53 binds the proximal promoter containing the CCAAT motif as examined by EMSA and chromatin immunoprecipitation. However, gradual induction of p53 in tet-onSAOS2 cells resulted in a transient increase of the PDGFRB-promoter activity and its expression. As binding of p53 to the promoter increased, previously bound p73, DeltaNp73, c-Myc, HDAC1 and HDAC4 were dismissed from the repressed promoter, and p300 was recruited. The transient increase of the promoter activity was therefore induced by the release of the p73, Myc and HDACs, previously shown to act as repressors to this promoter. Along with further increase of p53, p300 was replaced by HDAC1 and HDAC4, resulting in decreased PDGFRB expression. For the repression, acetylation of the C-terminal lysines of p53 is important, and both acetyl-K373p53 and methyl-K370p53 became bound to the promoter. The acetyl-K373p53 was accumulated in the nucleus and colocalized with promyelocytic leukemia protein. Mitomycin treatment of MEF induced similar epigenetic modification of p53 and its binding to the promoter chromatin. Addition of a PDGFR tyrosine-kinase inhibitor to p53-inducing tet-onSAOS2 increased the number of apoptotic cells. These results suggest that p53 represses the PDGFRB promoter, facilitating the p53-induced apoptosis, whereas tumor cells with p53 mutation or a high level of DeltaNp73 or Myc could become refractory to the regulation.