Functional human renin promoter in transfected cells: evidence for cell-specific expression

Expression of the human renin gene is regulated in a tissue-specific manner, but study of this regulation has been limited by a lack of suitable cell lines that simulate endogenous control. In order to characterize the regulation of renin gene expression, the 5' flanking region (892 base pairs) from the human renin gene was linked to the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene and was introduced into multiple human cell lines by calcium phosphate precipitation or electroporation methods to assess transcriptional control. The human renin promoter was active when transfected into cultured human choriocarcinoma cells (JEG-3) and rat vascular smooth muscle cells, but it was not active in many other cloned cell types. These results suggest that selective cell lines contain the specific trans-acting factors necessary for human renin gene expression, and support the concept of cell-specific expression of this gene.