Expression of the murine CD21 gene is regulated by promoter and intronic sequences

Murine CD21 gene products are expressed primarily on the surface of B lymphocytes and follicular dendritic cells. To identify the genetic elements that control the tissue-specific expression of the CD21 gene, we analyzed, via transient transfections, the 5' proximal promoter region of the CD21 gene (1272 bp 5' of the initiating ATG). This region possessed strong promoter activity, but it was not tissue specific, in that T cell expression was equivalent to that of B cells. These data suggested that the anticipated tissue-specific control element(s) lies 3' of the initiating ATG. Analysis of a novel minigene construct that possessed both the 5' promoter region and a large region (9 kb) of the CD21 gene 3' of the initiating ATG demonstrated the expected tissue-specific expression. Further analysis using the luciferase reporter system indicated that such control elements reside in the first intron (5.5 kb in size), which separates the exons encoding the signal sequence and the first extracellular short consensus repeat domain of the mature protein. Further dissection of intron 1 demonstrated that the sequences controlling the tissue-specific expression of the murine CD21 gene are contained in the 5' 1.6-kb region of this intron. This 1.6-kb fragment was fractionated into an 800-bp sequence at the 5' end that showed very significant inhibitory activity in both B and T cells and a 3' 800-bp sequence that demonstrated moderate repression in T cells, but enhancer activity in B cells. These data suggest this region of the CD21 gene possesses a number of functionally distinct sites that positively and negatively regulate CD21 gene transcription.