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Alternative splicing of exon 9 in human glucocorticoid receptor (hGR) transcripts yields two native hGR transcripts and proteins, hGRalpha and hGRbeta. We have now identified four novel hGRalpha transcripts that have various deletions of exon 2 sequences. Among these hGRalpha splice variants, three of them, 1A1/E2dist hGRalpha, 1A2/E2prox hGRalpha, and 1A3/E3 hGRalpha, arise from the hGR 1A promoter, while 1B/E3 hGRalpha comes from the hGR 1B promoter. When fused to Flag and enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) tags at the carboxy terminus, all transcript variants can be correctly translated in vitro and in vivo. The Flag-tagged hGRalpha protein variants can functionally bind to a glucocorticoid response element (GRE) and can mediate hormonal stimulation of a pGRE-luciferase reporter gene. Compared to the "classical", native hGRalpha, these four variants exhibit a cell type-specific activation of a reporter gene, and this is influenced by the hGRalpha 3' untranslated region in the hGR transcript. When equal amounts of the cDNAs for these GRalpha variant proteins are transfected into cells, they can exhibit lower or higher transcriptional activation compared to the classical GR. Furthermore, the EGFP-tagged proteins are nuclear localized, even in the absence of hormone. Using quantitative reverse transcription PCR, we found that these transcripts exist at a low level in CEM-C7 cells and IM-9 cells, although the concentrations of the 1A3/E3 hGRalpha and 1B/E3 hGRalpha transcripts are higher than for hGRbeta transcripts, while 1A1/E2dist hGRalphaand 1A2/E2prox hGRalpha transcript levels are comparable to the 1A1 hGRalpha and 1A2 hGRalpha (without the exon 2 deletions) transcript levels, respectively. Because these novel hGR, N-terminal deleted, protein variants have altered biological activity, their expression could potentially affect the hormone sensitivity or resistance in leukemia and be useful in diagnosing hormone-sensitive or -resistant disease.

The newly described 1A promoter of the human glucocorticoid receptor (hGR) gene contains an interferon (IFN) regulatory factor element (IRF-E), a binding motif for the family of proteins termed IFN regulatory factors (IRFs) that are regulated by IFNs. To examine the in vivo role of IFNs in hGR gene regulation, human T cell lines (CEM-C7 and Jurkat) were treated with IFN gamma. IFN gamma rapidly induces the expression of IRF-1 proteins in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Luciferase expression is induced by IFN treatment in Jurkat cells transfected with an hGR 1A promoter IRF-E/luciferase reporter gene, but induction is lost with deletion of the IRF-E. Electrophoretic mobility shift and supershift analyses indicate an increase in the binding of IRF-1 to oligonucleotides containing the hGR 1A promoter IRF-E after IFN gamma treatment, whereas IRF-2 binding to this oligonucleotide is unchanged. Human IRF-1 and IRF-2 proteins expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells bind to the hGR 1A promoter IRF-E; however, only IRF-1 activates transcription. Although IFNs clearly activate a transfected reporter gene containing the hGR 1A promoter in T cells, they do not alter the sensitivity of CEM-C7 cells to glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis. Additional studies revealed that the glucocorticoid steroid hormone, dexamethasone (DEX), completely blocks IFN induction of IRF-1 mRNA levels. This could explain the lack of any greater apoptotic response to a combination of DEX plus IFN compared with the response to DEX alone. In addition, treatment with IFN gamma alone does not alter endogenous GR mRNA levels (including exon 1A-containing transcripts derived from the hGR 1A promoter) in T lymphoblast cells, even though IRF-1 levels are induced. The difference in IRF-1-driven transcription between the hGR 1A reporter construct and the endogenous hGR 1A promoter could potentially be due to epigenetic effects, such as methylation.

At least three different promoter regions (1A, 1B, and 1C) are involved in the expression of the human GR gene. Promoters 1B and 1C are found in a 2800 bp region of DNA immediately upstream of the exon 1C transcriptional initiation site. Transcripts containing either exon 1B or 1C are expressed in a wide variety of human tissues and cultured cells. Luciferase reporter constructs were created containing promoter 1B plus 1C (-2738 to +19), promoter 1B (-2738 to -1046) alone, or promoter 1C (-1045 to +19) alone. All three constructs were equally effective in driving luciferase expression in HeLa (human cervical carcinoma) cells. In Jurkat (human T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia) cells, constructs containing promoters 1B plus 1C or promoter 1B were equally active, but the promoters 1B plus 1C construct was 35% more active than the promoter 1C construct. However, in HepG2 (human hepatoma) cells, the promoter 1C construct was as effective as promoters 1B plus 1C and more than twice as effective as promoter 1B. Sequences that reside proximal to the exon 1B transcriptional start site included three Sp1 (FP2-FP4) sites. Another site (FP1) contains the sequence TGATAG, which strongly resembles the consensus binding sequence for the GATA family of transcription factors. However, oligonucleotide competition and supershift analysis of FP1 indicates that this site is not a binding site for GATA proteins. These four sites are in addition to three YY1 and one Sp1 sites previously reported in promoter 1B. In HeLa cells, deletion of the three YY1 sites results in only a 30% loss of activity and substantial loss of activity occurs only after deletion of all four Sp1 sites, indicating the critical importance of Sp1 in GR expression in these cells. In contrast, the elimination of the three YY1 sites results in a dramatic decrease in promoter strength in both HepG2 and Jurkat cells (64 and 77%, respectively), while subsequent deletions of promoter elements do not result in substantial changes in promoter activity in these cell lines. This study shows that both promoters 1B and 1C are important for the ubiquitous expression of the human GR gene. Differences in the utilization of these promoters in various cell types are likely a reflection of different promoter availability and/or the levels of specific transcription factors in the cell. This could contribute to tissue-specific expression of GR levels in different cell types.