GATA proteins are potential negative regulators of HDC gene expression in the gastric epithelium.

In this study, we used the gastric epithelial cell line AGS-G(R) to investigate the role of GATA transcription factors in the regulation of both basal and gastrin-stimulated L-histidine decarboxylase (HDC) gene transcription. Using reporter gene technology, we compared the transcriptional activity of a construct, hHDC503, which contained the 5'-flanking region of the human HDC gene with that of similar constructs lacking selected GATA consensus sequences. We demonstrated the expression of GATA-4 and GATA-6 proteins within the AGS-G(R) cells and found evidence that these transcription factors can negatively regulate HDC gene expression.