Characterization of the IL-6 responsive elements in the gamma fibrinogen gene promoter

Fibrinogen, a hepatically derived class II acute phase protein, is the product of three separate genes, (A alpha, B beta, and gamma). The fibrinogen genes are expressed constitutively; however, their transcription can be significantly up-regulated by interleukin-6 (IL-6) and glucocorticoid. Inspection of the promoter region of the fibrinogen gamma gene revealed three hexanucleotide clusters of CTGGGA that are recognized as class II IL-6 responsive elements. Functional analyses of these regions (designated here as site I, site II, and site III according to their position in the promoter) were performed using luciferase reporter constructs and show a hierarchy of IL-6 response in which site II was the preferred functional site, site I was the next important site, and site III was the site least responsive to IL-6. Gel mobility shift assays using 25-base pair oligonucleotide probes derived from these three regions with the CTGGGA positioned in the middle and nuclear extracts from IL-6-treated primary hepatocytes reveal the presence of IL-6-induced high molecular weight complexes appearing 5 min after cytokine treatment. Supershift assays using anti-Stat3 antibody indicate that Stat3 is part of the IL-6-induced complex formed on the three gamma chain probes. The binding of Stat3 to the IL-6 responsive elements of the gamma probes is significantly weaker than to an alpha 2-macroglobulin probe. These findings show for the first time that Stat3 is involved in associating with the IL-6 responsive elements of fibrinogen gamma chain, a class II acute phase gene other than alpha 2-macroglobulin.