[en] Glucocorticoids have been shown to inhibit the activity of the human prolactin (hPRL) promoter. Using transient expression experiments in rat pituitary cells, we located the sequence conferring glucocorticoid inhibition to a region which contains Pit-1 binding sites, responsible for pituitary-specific expression, but does not seem to contain a glucocorticoid receptor (GR) binding site. Co-transfection experiments in non-pituitary cell lines, using expression vectors for Pit-1 and different mutants of the human GR show that inhibition of the hPRL gene is seen only in the presence of Pit-1 and GR, and that the DNA binding function of the receptor is not required. Immunoprecipitation studies show that either anti-GR or anti-Pit-1 antibodies are able to co-precipitate GR and Pit-1, suggesting an interaction between these factors. We conclude that the activated GR functionally interferes with the pituitary specific factor Pit-1, thereby leading to the observed transcriptional repression.
[Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences de la vie > GIGA-R : Biologie et génétique moléculaire >]
