Description of the leukocyte function-associated antigen 1 (LFA-1 or CD11a) promoter

The CD11a/CD18 (leukocyte function-associated antigen 1 or LFA-1) leukocyte integrin is expressed at high levels on the cell surface of T lymphocytes and macrophages, where it mediates homotypic and heterotypic adherence between leukocytes and other cell types by binding to intracellular adhesion molecules 1 and 2 on the conjugate cell. To initiate studies of the molecular regulation of expression of the CD11a molecule, we isolated genomic clones corresponding to the 5'-flanking region of CD11a, identified the transcriptional start sites for CD11a, and characterized the CD11a promoter sequence in transient expression assays. The CD11a promoter (1.7 kb) directed functional activity of a heterologous reporter gene in the T-lymphocyte cell line Jurkat and the myeloid cell line HL-60 but did not direct functional activity in three different nonleukocyte cell lines. Deletional analysis of the CD11a promoter sequence indicated the presence of distinct, cell-type-specific regulatory sequences with the region from -40 to -17 relative to the transcription start sites responsible for most of the in vitro activity of the CD11a promoter in the Jurkat T-cell line, and the promoter sequence located within the first 17 bp relative to the transcription start sites responsible for CD11a promoter activity in the HL-60 cell line. Identification of the CD11a promoter provides the opportunity to identify unique cis-acting elements and trans-acting factors responsible for the cell-type-specific expression of CD11a in human leukocytes. Further, the CD11a promoter may be useful in transgenic constructs and in retroviral vectors to direct expression of heterologous genes selectively in leukocytes.