Human macrophage inflammatory protein-3alpha/CCL20/LARC/Exodus/SCYA20 is transcriptionally upregulated by tumor necrosis factor-alpha via a non-standard NF-kappaB site.

The 5'-flanking sequences of the human macrophage inflammatory protein-3alpha/CCL20 gene were cloned and transfected into G-361 human melanoma cells in a luciferase reporter construct. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) treatment stimulated luciferase expression, and promoter truncations demonstrated that TNF-alpha inducibility is conferred by a region between nt -111 and -77, which contains a non-standard nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) binding site. The requirement for NF-kappaB was demonstrated as follows: (i) mutations in this NF-kappaB site abrogated TNF-alpha responsiveness; (ii) TNF-alpha activated a construct containing two copies of the CCL20 NF-kappaB binding site; (iii) overexpression of NF-kappaB p65 activated the CCL20 promoter; (iv) NF-kappaB from nuclear extracts of TNF-alpha-stimulated cells bound specifically to this NF-kappaB site.