Expression and transcriptional regulation of the human alpha 3 neuronal nicotinic receptor subunit in T lymphocyte cell lines

• Published in: Journal of neurochemistry 1998-09, Vol.71 (3), p.1261-1270
• Main Authors: Battaglioli, E, Gotti, C, Terzano, S, Flora, A, Clementi, F, nasari, D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0022-3042

The expression of neurotransmitter receptors on the surface of immunocompetent cells is generally accepted as evidence that the nervous system can influence immune responses, even though many aspects of these interactions remain to be elucidated. In this article, we analyzed the expression of the alpha 3 nicotinic receptor subunit in human cell lines of myeloid and lymphoid origin and show that the alpha 3 mRNA and the receptor molecules containing this subunit are specifically expressed in T lymphocyte cell lines. We have previously characterized the structural properties of the human alpha 3 nicotinic subunit gene promoter and defined its functional profile in neuronal cells; in this study, we analyzed the activity of the alpha 3 promoter in T lymphocytes and found that the same minimal promoter located in the 0.16-kb BglII-AccIII fragment is responsible for the expression of the alpha 3 mRNA in both neuronal and T lymphocyte cell lines. However, the alpha 3 transcription initiation patterns in the two cell types were both qualitatively and quantitatively different, and the minimal promoter was differentially modulated by downstream and upstream regulatory elements. These findings suggest that distinct transcriptional mechanisms allow the same promoter to be regulated in a tissue-specific fashion, according to the different functional needs of the two cell types.