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Distinct regulatory mechanism of immunoglobulin gene transcription in epithelial cancer cells

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 7, pages 279–286 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

The restriction of immunoglobulin (Ig) expression to B lymphocytes is well established. However, several reports have confirmed that the Ig gene can be expressed in many non-B cancer cells and/or some normal cells. Our aim is to determine whether the Ig gene promoter can be activated in non-B cancer cells and to identify the regulatory mechanism for Ig gene expression. Our results show that the Ig promoter of VH4-59 was activated in several non-B cancer cell lines. Moreover, two novel positive regulatory elements, an enhancer-like element at −800 to −610 bp and a copromoter-like element at −610 to −300 bp, were identified in two epithelial cancer cell lines, HeLa S3 and HT-29. The octamer element (5′-ATGCAAAT-3′) located in the Ig promoter, a crucial element for B-cell-derived Ig gene transcription, was also very important for non-B-cell-derived Ig gene transcription. More importantly, we confirmed that octamer-related protein-1 (Oct-1), but not Oct-2, was a crucial transcriptional factor for Ig gene transcription due to its ability to bind to the octamer element of the Ig promoter in epithelial cancer cells. These results suggested the presence of a distinct regulatory mechanism for Ig gene expression in non-B cancer cells.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Fundamental Research Grants 30572094 and 30772470 from the Natural Sciences Foundation, China. We thank Dr Dalong Ma and Dr Mingxu Xu (Peking University Center for Human Disease Genomics) for their comments and suggestions. This manuscript was proofread by an English-speaking professional with a science background at Elixigen Corporation.

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Author notes

  1. Xiaohui Zhu, Lina Wu and Li Zhang: These authors contributed equally to this work.

  2. Dr XY Qiu, Peking University Center for Human Disease Genomics, Xueyuan Road 38, Haidian District, Beijing 100191, China. E-mail: qiuxy@bjmu.edu.cn

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Peking University Center for Human Disease Genomics, Beijing, China

    Xiaohui Zhu, Lina Wu, Li Zhang, Peng Hao, Shuai Zhang, Jing Huang, Jie Zheng, Wenjun Li, Yingmei Zhang & Xiaoyan Qiu

  2. Department of Biochemistry, School of Basic Medical Science, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Yinan Liu & Chunyan Zhou

  3. Department of Immunology, Cancer Institute, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China

    Youhui Zhang

  4. Department of Hematopathology, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    C Cameron Yin

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Zhu, X., Wu, L., Zhang, L. et al. Distinct regulatory mechanism of immunoglobulin gene transcription in epithelial cancer cells. Cell Mol Immunol 7, 279–286 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/cmi.2010.13

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