Cholinergic chemosensory cells in the auditory tube.

The luminal composition of the auditory tube influences its function. The mechanisms involved in the monitoring are currently not known. For the lower respiratory epithelium, such a sentinel role is carried out by cholinergic brush cells. Here, using two different mouse strains expressing eGFP under the control of the promoter of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), we show the presence of solitary cholinergic villin-positive brush cells also in the mouse auditory tube epithelium. They express the vesicular acetylcholine (ACh) transporter and proteins of the taste transduction pathway such as α-gustducin, phospholipase C beta 2 (PLC(ß2)) and transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily M member 5 (TRPM5). Immunoreactivity for TRPM5 and PLCß2 was found regularly, whereas α-gustducin was absent in approximately 15% of the brush cells. Messenger RNA for the umami taste receptors (TasR), Tas1R1 and 3, and for the bitter receptors, Tas2R105 and Tas2R108, involved in perception of cycloheximide and denatonium were detected in the auditory tube. Using a transgenic mouse that expresses eGFP under the promotor of the nicotinic ACh receptor α3-subunit, we identified cholinoceptive nerve fibers that establish direct contacts to brush cells in the auditory tube. A subpopulation of these fibers displayed also CGRP immunoreactivity. Collectively, we show for the first time the presence of brush cells in the auditory tube. These cells are equipped with all proteins essential for sensing the composition of the luminal microenvironment and for communication of the changes to the CNS via attached sensory nerve fibers.

lynx1, an endogenous toxin-like modulator of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the mammalian CNS.

Elapid snake venom neurotoxins exert their effects through high-affinity interactions with specific neurotransmitter receptors. A novel murine gene, lynx1, is highly expressed in the brain and contains the cysteine-rich motif characteristic of this class of neurotoxins. Primary sequence and gene structure analyses reveal an evolutionary relationship between lynx1 and the Ly-6/neurotoxin gene family. lynx1 is expressed in large projection neurons in the hippocampus, cortex, and cerebellum. In cerebellar neurons, lynx1 protein is localized to a specific subdomain including the soma and proximal dendrites. lynx1 binding to brain sections correlates with the distribution of nAChRs, and application of lynx1 to Xenopus oocytes expressing nAChRs results in an increase in acetylcholine-evoked macroscopic currents. These results identify lynx1 as a novel protein modulator for nAChRs in vitro, which could have important implications in the regulation of cholinergic function in vivo.

In vivo analysis of the state of the human uPA enhancer following stimulation by TPA.

We have analysed in vivo the -2.0 kb enhancer of the human urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) gene in HepG2 cells, in which gene expression can be induced by phorbol esters. The results reveal that, within the regulatory region, the enhancer, the silencer and the minimal promoter become hypersensitive to deoxyribonuclease I (DNase I) upon induction of transcription. The hypersensitivity of the enhancer can be reversed after removal of the inducer. In vivo footprinting analysis indicates that all the cis-acting elements of the enhancer, previously identified in vitro, are occupied in vivo upon 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA) stimulation of HepG2 cells. Micrococcal nuclease (MNase) cleavage of this region fails to reveal discrete nucleosomal boundaries in vivo in close proximity of the enhancer, either before or after stimulation. Furthermore, this region does not lose its nucleosomal configuration after TPA induction of transcription. An approximately 600 bp long region around the enhancer becomes more, but not fully, accessible to restriction endonucleases upon stimulation. A time-course experiment shows that this accessibility reaches a plateau after a 1 h TPA treatment suggesting the persistent presence of nucleosomes. These results indicate that TPA induces the binding of transcription factors to the uPA enhancer without chromatin remodelling of this region.

Transcriptional regulation of the murine urokinase-type plasminogen activator gene in skeletal myoblasts.

We have previously shown that urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) is highly expressed in murine C2C12 myoblasts and that antibodies against uPA are able to block both myoblast fusion and differentiation. Here we show the characterization of cis-acting elements in the mouse uPA promoter in vitro which are involved in uPA gene expression in C2C 12 myoblast cells. DNase I hypersensitive (HS) site analysis revealed the presence of three HS sites in myoblasts. Deletion analysis of stably transfected uPA-promoter constructs revealed that at least two of the three HS sites accounted for the high transcriptional expression in C2C12 cells. One was located at -2.4 kb and corresponded to a known PEA3/AP1A element and the other one was located at -4.9 kb and contained a CArG box and a CRE element. So far, no regulatory function had been assigned to this CRE/CArG element. Both HS sites alone were able to activate transcription of a heterologous promoter and showed a cooperative effect when placed together. Electrophoretic mobility-shift assays using myoblast nuclear extracts and specific antibodies demonstrated that cJun, JunD and ATF2 bound to the PEA3/AP1A element, whereas the CRE/CArG element bound SRF. Altogether, these results suggest that high uPA expression in myoblasts is dependent on the cooperation of two regulatory sites in the uPA promoter.

Expression of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit mRNA in mouse bladder afferent neurons.

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) influence bladder afferent activity and reflex sensitivity, and have been suggested as potential targets for treating detrusor overactivity. Mechanisms may include indirect effects, e.g. involving the urothelium, and direct action on nAChR expressed by afferent neurons. Here we determined the nAChR repertoire of bladder afferent neurons by retrograde neuronal tracing and laser-assisted microdissection/reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and quantified retrogradely labelled nAChRα3-subunit-expressing neurons by immunohistochemistry in nAChR α3ß4α5 cluster enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) reporter mice. Bladder afferents distinctly expressed mRNAs encoding for nAChR-subunits α3, α6, α7, ß2-4, and weakly α4. Based upon known combinatorial patterns of subunits, this predicts the expression of at least three basically different subunits of nAChR - α3(∗), α6(∗) and α7(∗) - and of additional combinations with ß-subunits and α5. Bladder afferents were of all sizes, and their majority (69%; n=1367) were eGFP-nAChRα3 positive. Immunofluorescence revealed immunoreactivities to neurofilament 68 (NF68), transient receptor potential cation channel vanilloid 1 (TRPV1), substance P (SP) and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in eGFP-nAChRα3-positive and -negative neurons. For each antigen, all possible combinations of colocalisation with eGFP-nAChRα3 were observed, with eGFP-nAChRα3-positive bladder neurons without additional immunoreactivity being most numerous, followed by triple-labelled neurons. In conclusion, more than one population of bladder afferent neurons expresses nAChR, indicating that peripheral nicotinic initiation and modulation of bladder reflexes might result, in addition to indirect effects, from the direct activation of sensory terminals. The expression of multiple nAChR subunits offers the potential of selectively addressing functional aspects and/or sensory neuron subpopulations.

Retinoic acid induction of human tissue-type plasminogen activator gene expression via a direct repeat element (DR5) located at -7 kilobases.

All-trans-retinoic acid (RA) and retinoids induce synthesis of tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) in endothelial and neuroblastoma cells in vitro and in rats in vivo. In HT1080 fibrosarcoma cells, induction of t-PA-related antigen secretion and t-PA mRNA steady state levels by RA were found to depend on de novo protein and mRNA synthesis. Fragments derived from the 5'-flanking region of the t-PA gene (+197 to -9578 base pairs (bp)) were linked to the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene. Transfection studies demonstrated that the region spanning bp -7145 to -9578 mediated induction by RA. A functional retinoic acid response element (RARE), consisting of a direct repeat of the GGGTCA motif spaced by 5 nucleotides (t-PA/DR5), was localized at -7.3 kilobases. The t-PA/DR5 element interacted with the heterodimer composed of retinoic acid receptor alpha and retinoid X receptor alpha in vitro, whereas its mutation abolished induction by RA in transient expression. In human EA.hy926 hybrid endothelial and in SK-N-SH neuroblastoma cells, the activity of t-PA/DR5 was found to be independent of the intervening sequence (-632 to -7144 bp) and of its distance from the transcription initiation site. Staurosporine, an inhibitor of protein kinase activity, inhibited induction by RA, suggesting that it required protein phosphorylation.

Identification of a multihormone responsive enhancer far upstream from the human tissue-type plasminogen activator gene.

A 2.4-kilobase (kb) DNA fragment, located 7.1 kb upstream from the human tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) gene (t-PA2.4), acts as an enhancer which is activated by glucocorticoids, progesterone, androgens, and mineralocorticoids. Transient expression of t-PA-chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter constructs in HT1080 human fibrosarcoma cells identified a glucocorticoid responsive unit with four functional binding sites for the glucocorticoid receptor, located between bp -7,501 and -7,974. The region from bp -7,145 to -9,578 (t-PA2.4) was found to confer a cooperative induction by dexamethasone and all-trans-retinoic acid (RA) to its homologous and a heterologous promoter, irrespective of its orientation. The minimal enhancer, defined by progressive deletion analysis, comprised the region from -7.1 to -8.0 kb (t-PA0.9) and encompassed the glucocorticoid responsive unit and the previously identified RA-responsive element located at -7.3 kb (Bulens, F., Ibañez-Tallon, I., Van Acker, P., De Vriese, A., Nelles, L., Belayew, A., and Collen, D. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 7167-7175). The amplitude of the synergistic response to dexamethasone and RA increased by reducing the distance between the enhancer and the proximal t-PA promoter. The synergistic interaction was also observed between the aldosterone and the RA receptors. It is postulated that the t-PA0.9 enhancer might play a role in the hormonal regulation of the expression of human t-PA in vivo.