Isolation and characterization of clones for the rat hepatic lipase gene upstream regulatory region.

Genomic clones for 2287 nucleotides of the 5' flanking region, 135 nucleotides of the first exon, and 283 nucleotides of the first intron of the hepatic lipase gene were characterized. The predominant start site for transcription was identified by primer extension and S1 nuclease analyses to be 50 bases upstream of the ATG initiation codon. Based on the location of the major transcription start site, the functional TATA box is located 29 nucleotides upstream. Putative response elements for AP-2, cAMP, OCT-1, C/EBP, estrogen, glucocorticoids, sterols and thyroid hormone were located in this gene. Also a putative liver-specific element for apolipoproteins, C3P, was identified.