Regulation of alternative splicing of liver scavenger receptor class B gene by estrogen and the involved regulatory splicing factors.

The scavenger receptor class B isoforms (SR-B) type I and type II mediate the selective uptake of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and promote reverse cholesterol transport, an important atherosclerosis protection mechanism, in the liver. Previously it was shown that the hepatic expression of SR-BI and SR-BII is regulated by estrogen. In the present study, we demonstrate that estrogen differentially regulates expression of the glycosylated and nonglycosylated forms of SR-BI and SR-BII in rat liver and hepatic cells. We report that estrogen mainly induces the down-regulation of glycosylated SR-BI and the up-regulation of nonglycosylated SR-BII. To study how estrogen regulates expression of the SR-B isoforms, we constructed a SR-B minigene containing minimal genomic sequences and were able to demonstrate that estrogen directly regulates the pre-mRNA alternative splicing of the exogenously expressed SR-B minigene in hepatic cells. Furthermore, we showed that the overexpression of splicing factors alternative splicing factor/splicing factor 2, Transformer (Tra)-2alpha, and Tra2beta changes the splicing pattern of SR-B dramatically, whereas other splicing factors, such as heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein-G, SC-35, and arginine/serine-rich p40, had no effect. We also demonstrate that estrogen regulates Tra2beta expression levels in liver cells. These studies suggest that estrogen may regulate SR-B isoform expression at both the RNA splicing and posttranslational modification levels and that, for alternative splicing regulation, estrogen may function by regulating the expression of the splicing factors alternative splicing factor/splicing factor 2, Tra2alpha, and especially Tra2beta.