Fos is required for egf stimulation of the gastrin promoter. Marks, Patricia, Gaitry Iyer, Yingqi Cui, Juanita L. Merchant. Departments of Internal Medicine and Physiology, University of Michigan and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
APStracts 3:0129G, 1996.
Gastrin gene expression is regulated by developmental cues, pH and inflammation. These processes are mediated by various extracellular ligands, e.g., growth factors, cytokines and neuropeptides that also stimulate cfos gene expression. Therefore to determine whether Fos is required for stimulation of the gastrin promoter, a cfos sense expression vector was coexpressed with a gastrin reporter construct in a GH4 rat pituitary cell line. We found that EGF and TNF[alpha] transiently stimulate an increase in Fos protein that precedes stimulation of the gastrin promoter. However, the induction mediated by TNF[alpha] was weaker than that mediated by EGF indicating minimal overlap of the signaling pathways activated by EGF and TNF[alpha]. Accordingly, overexpression of cfos mRNA facilitated primarily EGF rather than TNF[alpha] induction of the gastrin promoter. Expression of the cfos gene in the absence of ligand did not stimulate the gastrin promoter. Thus, cfos gene expression is required but is not sufficient for induction of the gastrin promoter by EGF.

Received 2 January 1996; accepted in final form 10 June 1996.
APS Manuscript Number G4-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Gastrointest. Liver
Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 4 July 96