A granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor gene promoter element responsive to inflammatory mediators is functionally distinct from an identical sequence in the granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor gene.

A number of mesenchymal cells produce hemopoietic growth factors in response to inflammatory mediators in vitro and in vivo. Induced transcription from the hemopoietic growth factor genes is at least partially responsible for their increased expression. We have previously identified a sequence, cytokine (CK)-1, in the granulocyte (G)-CSF gene promoter that responds to TNF-alpha and binds a transcription factor, NF-GMa. We report here that the CK-1 sequence responds in a time- and dose-dependent manner to IL-1 beta and that the mutations which affect NF-GMa binding correlate with decreased transcriptional activity after stimulation with either TNF-alpha or IL-1 beta. The CK-1 sequence also responds to the human T lymphotrophic virus-1 transactivator, tax, so that this promoter element may contribute to the overall response of the G-CSF gene to these various agents. Although NF-GMa binding is seen in a number of cell types, the ability of the G-CSF CK-1 sequence to act as a transcriptional enhancer is specific for fibroblasts and not T cells. Furthermore, we show that an identical sequence in the granulocyte macrophage CSF gene, although apparently binding the same protein in vitro, cannot respond to any of these stimuli in either fibroblasts or T cells. Modification interference experiments, using the CK-1 region in the context of the granulocyte macrophage-CSF and G-CSF genes, indicated that the contact points for NF-GMa differ in each case and suggest that differences in sequences flanking the 10-bp CK-1 region probably leads to an altered DNA:protein conformation, which may explain the differential response of this conserved promoter element.