High level expression of wild type and variant mouse glucocorticoid receptors in Chinese hamster ovary cells

We have isolated Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines expressing elevated levels of wild-type (W) and mutant forms of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) using the technique of coamplification with a selectable dihydrofolate reductase (dhfr) cDNA. A prominent doublet at 90/92 kilodaltons was observed by Western blotting or labeling with [3H]-dexamethasone mesylate in extracts from cells transfected with W, the hormone binding mutant (NA), and the DNA binding mutant (NB). Quantification of receptor number by [3H]dexamethasone binding revealed the presence of approximately 10(6) receptors per cell in the W and NB-producing lines. This represents a 25- to 50-fold increase in receptor density over control CHO cells which were not transfected with GR. Comparative quantitation by Western blotting of extracts from cells expressing GR showed that cells producing NA contain a level approximately 500-fold over control CHO cells. Function of the amptified receptors was examined by transient transfection with the glucocorticoid-responsive reporter plasmid pMMTV-chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT). Our results indicate that inducible CAT activity increases with the abundance of W receptor and no evidence of saturability was observed even at the highest levels of receptor. This supports previous suggestions that the concentration of the hormone-regulated transcription factor is definitely limiting with regard to maximal transcription efficiency. Interestingly, cells expressing even highly amplified levels of NA-GR or NB-GR showed no inducible response above that seen with control CHO cells. Thus these mutations are exceedingly nonleaky and are not dominant over the low endogenous activity of the CHO GR.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)