Regulation of endothelin-1 gene expression in human microvascular endothelial cells by hypoxia and cobalt: role of hypoxia responsive element.

Endothelin-1 (Et-1) is a vasoconstrictor peptide that plays an important role in the pathophysiology of hypertension, myocardial ischemia, and other diseases. We examined the mechanism of regulation the Et-1 mRNA expression in human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC-1) in response to hypoxia and cobalt. To determine whether the 5'-flanking region of Et-1 gene mediate transcriptional responses to cellular hypoxia, we constructed reporter plasmids in which Et-1 5'-flanking sequences of Et-1 gene were fused to luciferase coding sequences. Constructs, which contain native Et-1 sequence 5'-AACGTGCA-3', located between -118 and -125 in the opposite orientation as the transcriptional unit, mediate transcriptional response to hypoxia and cobalt. This responsiveness was inhibited by genistein, a tyrosine kinase selective inhibitor. Both hypoxia and cobalt induced binding of HIF-1 (hypoxia inducible-1 factor) to this Et-1 hypoxia responsive element in gel shift assays. Mutation in this sequence eliminated both the hypoxia-induced HIF-1 binding and luciferase expression. Using the supershift assay we have shown that this hypoxia responsive element binds HIF-1alpha and HIF-1beta proteins. Interestingly, genistein only slightly affected HIF-1 binding. These results indicate that the Et-1 gene contains HIF-1 binding hypoxia responsive elements which mediate transcriptional responses to hypoxia and cobalt in microvascular endothelial cells. Genistein appears to inhibit this response by affecting the transcriptional activity of the HIF-1 complex, without significantly affecting its DNA-binding properties.