There is still relatively limited information about mechanisms of gene expression in enterocytes and mechanisms by which gene expression is regulated during enterocyte differentiation. Using the human intestinal epithelial cell line Caco-2, which spontaneously differentiates from a cryptlike to a villouslike enterocyte, we have previously shown that there is a marked increase in transcription of the well-characterized ₁-antitrypsin (₁-AT) gene during enterocyte differentiation. In this study we examined the possibility of identifying the cis-acting elements and trans-acting DNA-binding proteins responsible for expression of the ₁-AT gene in Caco-2 cells during differentiation. Footprint analysis and electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that hepatocyte nuclear factor-1 (HNF-1), HNF-1, and HNF-4 from nuclear extracts of Caco-2 cells specifically bound to two regions in the proximal promoter of the ₁-AT gene. Cotransfection studies showed that HNF-1 and HNF-4 had a synergistic effect on ₁-AT gene expression. RNA blot analysis showed that HNF-1 and HNF-4 mRNA levels and electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that HNF-1 binding activity increase coordinately with ₁-AT mRNA levels during differentiation of Caco-2 cells. Finally, overexpression of antisense ribozymes for HNF-1 in Caco-2 cells resulted in a selective decrease in endogenous ₁-AT gene expression. Together, these results provide evidence that HNF-1 and HNF-4 play a role in the mechanism by which the ₁-AT gene is upregulated during enterocyte differentiation in the model Caco-2 cell system.

enterocyte differentiation; hepatocyte nuclear factor-1; hepatocyte nuclear factor-4

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