Heme regulates hepatic 5-aminolevulinate synthase mRNA expression by decreasing mRNA half-life and not by altering its rate of transcription.

Hepatic 5-aminolevulinate (ALA) synthase, the first and rate-limiting enzyme in the heme biosynthetic pathway, is known to be feedback repressed by the end product of the pathway, heme. We investigated whether heme regulates ALA synthase mRNA expression transcriptionally or post-transcriptionally in primary cultures of chick embryo hepatocytes. 2-Propyl-2-isopropylacetamide increased the rate of transcription of the ALA synthase gene, whereas heme or an inhibitor of heme biosynthesis, desferrioximine, had no effect on the drug-induced transcription rate. Heme decreased the half-life of ALA synthase mRNA from approximately 3.5 h to 1.2 as recently reported by Drew and Ades (1989, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 162, 102-107). We also found that the heme-mediated decrease in mRNA stability was prevented by cycloheximide treatment, suggesting that the heme effect was mediated by a labile protein. These results support a model for hepatic ALA synthase regulation in which inducing drugs directly stimulate ALA synthase gene transcription, whereas heme regulates ALA synthase expression post-transcriptionally by modulating mRNA stability as well as by blocking translocation of ALA synthase enzyme into the mitochondrion.