Transcriptional regulation of mouse delta-opioid receptor gene. Role of Ikaros in the stimulated transcription of mouse delta-opioid receptor gene in activated T cells.

Delta-opioid receptors (DOR) present on T cells have been shown to mediate the immunomodulatory effects of endogenous and synthetic DOR agonists on T cells. Considerable evidence indicates that there is stimulated transcription of DOR gene in activated T cells, which is correlated with augmented expression of DOR and enhanced capacity of DOR agonists to affect the T-cell's functions. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the stimulated transcription of the DOR gene in activated T cells is still unclear. In the present study, we analyzed a 1.3-kb DNA fragment immediately upstream of the translation start site (-1300 to +1 bp, with the translation start site designated as +1) of the mouse DOR gene in EL-4 cells, a mouse lymphoma T cell line that exhibits enhanced expression of DOR transcripts when activated by phytohemagglutinin. Through both in vivo and in vitro experiments, we have demonstrated that increased binding activity of Ikaros at the Ikaros-binding site (-378 to -374) in the DOR promoter is required for the stimulated transcription of DOR gene in phytohemagglutinin-activated T cells.