Identification of the rat xanthine dehydrogenase/oxidase promoter

Inflammation and ischemia--reperfusion tissue injury are important pathophysiologic processes with a wide spectrum of clinical presentations; the enzyme xanthine dehydrogenase/oxidase (XDH/XO) is thought to play a key role in ischemia--reperfusion injury. Recent studies have shown the transcriptional regulation of XDH/XO by cytokines (Dupont et al., 1992, J. Clin. Invest. 89, 197-202). In the present study, the 5' structure of the XDH/XO gene and characterization of its promoter are undertaken providing an initial step to further elucidate the regulatory mechanism(s) of this enzyme. XDH/XO cDNA from rat bone marrow macrophage has been isolated and used to screen a rat genomic library in order to identify and characterize the promoter of the XDH/XO gene. By Southern analysis, XDH/XO was found to be a single copy gene in the rat genome. Primer extension, RNase protection, and anchor-PCR studies indicate the presence of multiple start sites within a 65 bp window located some 20-85 bp upstream of the translation initiator (ATG). Functional studies of the sequences up to 116 nt upstream of the translational start site, which encompasses the several transcriptional start sites, indicate that this region is sufficient to drive the expression of a luciferase reporter gene and is presumed to represent the promoter. Neither a TATA box nor a GC-rich region are present in close proximity to any of the transcriptional start sites; however, sequences with homology to known initiator elements are found within this 116 bp fragment. Several possible regulatory elements, including a NF-IL6 motif, are also located upstream of the transcriptional start site. This study represents the first description of the XDH/XO promoter from a vertebrate system.