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We have examined the role that the caudal-related homeobox transcription factors Cdx1 and Cdx2 play in activating the enterocyte differentiation marker gene intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP). Human colon cancer Caco-2 cells were transiently transfected with Cdx1 and/or Cdx2, and semiquantitative RT-PCR was used to study the effects on IAP mRNA expression. Transfections with a variety of IAP-luciferase reporter constructs were used to identify a Cdx response element located within the human IAP gene promoter. Protein-DNA interactions were examined by EMSA. Results showed that Cdx1 markedly induced IAP mRNA expression, whereas Cdx2 did not, and, in fact, inhibited the Cdx1 effects. Functional analysis revealed that Cdx1 transactivates (fourfold, P < 0.05) the 1AP promoter through a novel Cdx response element (GTTTAGA) located between -2369 and -2375 upstream of the translational start site. EMSA showed that both Cdx1 and Cdx2 could bind to the cis element, but in cotransfection experiments, Cdx2 inhibited the Cdx 1 effects by ∼50%. Thus we have identified a previously unrecognized interaction between two important gut transcription factors, Cdx1 and Cdx2, in the context of IAP gene regulation. Cdx1 activates the IAP gene via a novel cis element, whereas Cdx2 inhibits the Cdx1 effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gut-enriched Krüppel-like factor (KLF4) and the ligand-bound thyroid hormone receptor (TR) have each been shown to play a critical role in mammalian gut development and differentiation. We investigated an interrelationship between these two presumably independent pathways using the differentiation marker gene, intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP). Transient transfections were performed in Cos-7 cells using luciferase reporter plasmids containing a 2.5 kb segment of the proximal human IAP 5′ regulatory region, as well as multiple deletions. Cells were cotransfected with TR and/or KLF4 expression vectors and treated±100 nmol/L thyroid hormone (T3). IAP reporter gene transactivation was increased independently by KLF4 (ninefold) and ligand-bound TRβ1 (sevenfold). Cells cotransfected with KLF4 and TRβ1 in the presence of T3 showed synergistic activation (70-fold). A similar pattern was seen with the other T3 receptor isoform, TRα1. The synergistic effect was lost with deletions of the T3 and KLF4 response elements in the IAP promoter and was completely or partially abolished in the case of mutant KLF4 expression vectors. The thyroid hormone receptor complex and KLF4 synergistically activate the enterocyte differentiation marker gene IAP, suggesting a previously unrecognized interrelationship between these two transcription factor pathways. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]