Regulation of the human prostacyclin receptor gene by the cholesterol-responsive SREBP1

Prostacyclin and its prostacyclin receptor, the I Prostanoid (IP), play essential roles in regulating hemostasis and vascular tone and have been implicated in a range cardio-protective effects but through largely unknown mechanisms. In this study, the influence of cholesterol on human IP [(h)IP] gene expression was investigated in cultured vascular endothelial and platelet-progenitor megakaryocytic cells. Cholesterol depletion increased human prostacyclin receptor (hIP) mRNA, hIP promoter-directed reporter gene expression, and hIP-induced cAMP generation in all cell types. Furthermore, the constitutively active sterol-response element binding protein (SREBP)1a, but not SREBP2, increased hIP mRNA and promoter-directed gene expression, and deletional and mutational analysis uncovered an evolutionary conserved sterol-response element (SRE), adjacent to a known functional Sp1 element, within the core hIP promoter. Moreover, chromatin immunoprecipitation assays confirmed direct cholesterol-regulated binding of SREBP1a to this hIP promoter region in vivo, and immunofluorescence microscopy corroborated that cholesterol depletion significantly increases hIP expression levels. In conclusion, the hIP gene is directly regulated by cholesterol depletion, which occurs through binding of SREBP1a to a functional SRE within its core promoter. Mechanistically, these data establish that cholesterol can regulate hIP expression, which may, at least in part, account for the combined cardio-protective actions of low serum cholesterol through its regulation of IP expression within the human vasculature.