Unmethylation of specific sites in the 5' region is critical for the expression of murine alpha Fc gamma R gene

Three subtypes of murine low-affinity receptors for IgG (Fc gamma RII) have been identified. One is encoded by the alpha Fc gamma R gene, two are encoded by the beta Fc gamma R gene. In the present work, we examined whether DNA methylation might control expression of the alpha Fc gamma R gene. We found that, in DNA from a panel of Fc gamma R(+) and (-) cell lines, two MspI sites of the alpha Fc gamma R gene were selectively unmethylated only in the two cell lines containing alpha transcripts. These sites, separated by a distance of 1.2 kb, are located in the 5' region of the gene. All other MspI sites were methylated in all cell lines. Furthermore, 5-azacytidine induced the demethylation and the expression of the alpha Fc gamma R gene in the Fc gamma R(-) thymoma BW5147. Both alpha Fc gamma R gene transcripts and corresponding protein products became detectable in 5-azacytidine-treated cells. The alpha Fc gamma R gene was also demethylated and expressed in mouse spleen cells cultured with human rIL-2. We conclude that a correlation links the unmethylation and the expression of the alpha Fc gamma R gene in murine cell lines as well as in nontransformed lymphoid cells responding to a physiological stimulus.