Volume 51 (12): 1601-1609, 2003 Copyright ©The Histochemical Society, Inc. Identification of c-Jun as bcl-2 Transcription Factor in Human Uterine Endometrium
Departments of Anatomy and Biology (ZLL,HA,YO) and Obstetrics and Gynecology (KU,KK), Osaka Medical College, Osaka, Japan and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (RA), Takatsuki Red-Cross Hospital, Osaka, Japan Correspondence to: Y. Otsuki, MD, Dept. of Anatomy and Biology, Osaka Medical College, 2-7 Daigaku-machi, Takatsuki, Osaka 569-8686, Japan. E-mail: an1001{at}art.osaka-med.ac.jp
We describe the application of the biomolecular interaction (BIA) technique to detection of the interaction between protein (e.g., c-Jun) and DNA (e.g., two AP-1 motifs from bcl-2 promoter), compared with immunohistochemistry (IHC) of c-Jun. The specific binding assay for the interaction of c-Jun and activating protein-1 (AP-1) motifs was performed using a Biacore 2000 system. Intense immunoreactivity of c-Jun in glandular cells of the human uterine endometrium was observed in the proliferative phase, while c-Jun in stromal cells was expressed throughout the menstrual cycle. In contrast to the IHC of c-Jun, the specific binding of c-Jun to two separate AP-1 motifs in the bcl-2 promoter region was detected only in nuclear extracts of glandular cells, but not in stromal cells, during the proliferative phase. These results indicate that, while transmitting various signals, c-Jun enhances the transcription level of bcl-2, which in turn keeps glandular cells alive and proliferating in normal human endometrium during the proliferative phase. Moreover, the method involving real-time biomolecular interactions such as DNAprotein binding is novel for the study of transcription factors when combined with IHC. (J Histochem Cytochem 51:16011609, 2003)
Key Words: biomolecular interaction bcl-2 c-Jun AP-1 promoter endometrium uterus
THE PROTO-ONCOGENE PRODUCT bcl-2 is a 25-kD protein found in several subcellular locations including the outer mitochondrial, outer nuclear, and endoplasmic reticulum membranes (Tsujimoto et al. 1985
Among many candidate binding sites in the bcl-2 5'-regulatory region (-1600 bp to -1 bp), two separate specific DNA sites should be recognized by the AP-1 family. The mammalian AP-1 family comprises several bZIP (basic region leucine zipper) proteins that can form either homo- or heterodimers among themselves (Angel and Karin 1991
In the past 10 years, Biacore analysis has become the standard technique for studying real-time biomolecular interactions such as DNAprotein interactions (Fivash et al. 1998 Our IHC of c-Jun showed that its cyclic expression pattern, peaking in expression level during the proliferative phase, was similar to that of bcl-2 in human endometrial glandular cells. However, IHC cannot determine with certainty the specific binding of c-Jun to AP-1 motifs from the bcl-2 promoter or exclude the possibility of the specific binding of c-Jun to promoters of other genes in endometrial glandular cells. This study using the Biacore system was carried out to elucidate the direct binding between c-Jun and AP-1 motifs of the bcl-2 promoter in human endometrium throughout the menstrual cycle.
Uterine Endometrial Samples Endometrial tissue samples were obtained from patients undergoing hysterectomy for benign disease (proliferative phase, n = 5; secretory phase, n = 7). The patients (3048 years old, average 43 years) showed normal menstrual cycles and had received no hormonal therapy for at least three menstrual cycles before surgery. Small tissue blocks were obtained from the fundus within the uterine cavity containing the endometrium and were used for IHC. Nuclear proteins were extracted from the remaining endometrium for Biacore analysis. The menstrual phase was determined on the basis of both menstrual history and the results of endometrial histology. Informed consent was obtained from each patient before the surgery, using protocols approved by the Ethical Committee of Osaka Medical College.
Immunohistochemistry
Nuclear Proteins from Endometrial Cells
The nuclear extracts were prepared from the dispersed stromal and glandular cells according to a previously reported protocol (Dong et al. 1999
Biotinylated Promoter Fragments
Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) HBS buffer with 25 ng/µl poly [d (IC)] was used to prepare the nuclear proteins for injection. Human recombinant c-Jun (Promega Biosciences; Madison WI) was injected at a concentration of 10 or 20 footprinting units/ml, corresponding to 6.4 or 12.8 ng/µl of nuclear protein. For samples from human endometrium, 1.07.0 µl of the crude nuclear extracts was diluted to 10 ng/µl or 20.0 ng/µl. The samples were incubated at 24C for 15 min. The anti-c-Jun antibody was from Santa Cruz Biotechnology. Normal rabbit IgG (Chemicon International; Temecula, CA) was used as a negative control antibody. Each association/dissociation cycle was performed at a constant flow rate of 30 µl/min. For proteinDNA binding reactions, each sample was injected over the flow cells for 5 min, followed by a constant flow of HBS buffer for 5 min to observe dissociation of bound proteins. Then 20 ng/µl normal rabbit IgG or anti-c-Jun antibody in HBS buffer was injected in the same manner. At the end of each cycle, bound proteins were removed by two-pulse injections of 1.5 M NaCl for 30 sec each to regenerate the chip. Sensorgrams were recorded automatically and adjusted to zero baseline level by subtracting the response recorded immediately before the injection of each sample. Comparison between sensorgrams was carried out by subtracting the responses in control flow cell, which is the lowest sensorgram in each figure on the right panel of Figures 24.
Immunohistochemistry Immunoreactivity of c-Jun could be detected in sections from all 12 endometrial samples collected during the proliferative through the secretory phase of menstrual cycle (Figure 1) . When multiple sections of the same uterine endometrium were examined, an identical staining pattern was observed in different sections. Intense immunostaining of c-Jun could be detected in sections from the proliferative phase (Figure 1A). Expression of c-Jun was localized on the nuclei of both glandular and stromal cells, although the signal appeared stronger in the glandular cells. However, the intensity of expression was markedly decreased in endometrial sections from seven samples from the secretory phase (Figure 1B), especially in the glandular cells. Although many of the glandular nuclei did not exhibit positive immunoreactivity, only a portion of the nucleus was stained in many others. In all sections examined, no definite immunoreactivity could be observed outside of nuclei. The expression pattern observed in our study is consistent with what has been previously reported (Salmi et al. 1998
Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) The amounts of oligonucleotides immobilized were 300 RU (AP-1x300) or 600 RU (AP-1x600) for AP-1x, and 300 RU (AP-1y300) for AP-1y, to obtain the most reproducible results. The first flow cell was immobilized with similar amount of control DNA. Injection of the human recombinant c-Jun 6.4 ng/µl resulted in a rising peak for both AP-1x and AP-1y (Figures 2B and 2B '). Afterwards, a rapidly rising curve could be detected during injection of the rabbit anti-human c-Jun antibody instead of the normal rabbit IgG (Figures 2A and 2A'). Then the rising curve descended very slowly when the running buffer was flowing over, indicating a high association rate of the bound molecules. Increasing the concentration of the injected nuclear protein to 12.8 ng/µl showed similar results (Figures 2C and 2C'). It is noteworthy that AP-1y more efficiently bound the purified recombinant c-Jun than did AP-1x, because a similar binding value between AP-1x300 and AP-1y300 could be detected when the amount of c-Jun was elevated from 6.4 ng/µl to 12.8 ng/µl (Figure 2C). The above results demonstrate that specific binding of the purified c-Jun to AP-1x and AP-1y can be effectively detected with the Biacore 2000 system. The crude nuclear extracts were prepared from five samples obtained in the proliferative (menstrual days 7, 10, 11, 12, and 14) and seven samples in secretory (menstrual days 17, 19, 20, 20, 21, 22, and 24) phases, respectively. Each sample was measured more than three times and reproducible results were obtained each time. Typical results are shown in Figures 3 and 4 . After the crude nuclear extracts 10 ng/µl from the proliferative glandular cells were passed over the flow cells, injection of the anti-c-Jun antibody 20 ng/µl resulted in sharply rising curves for both AP-1x and AP-1y (Figures 3A and 3A'). Increasing the concentration of injected nuclear proteins to 20 ng/µl yielded more intense association (Figures 3B and 3B'). Similar to the purified c-Jun (Figure 2B), a stronger association was detected in the flow cells coupled with AP-1y than in those coupled with AP-1x. Even in this case the response was rarely detectable after injection of the proliferative nuclear extract prepared from the stromal cells (Figures 3C, 3C', 3D, and 3D') of the same tissue sample. These results indicate that, in the proliferative stromal cells, although the nuclear c-Jun exists (Figure 1A) it is not available for binding to the AP-1 motifs in the bcl-2 promoter, because of the fact that the purified c-Jun could bind the AP-1 motifs very efficiently (Figure 2). When the secretory nuclear extracts were used in the assay, neither the glandular (Figures 4A, 4A', 4B, and 4B') nor the stromal samples (Figures 4C, 4C', 4D, and 4D') showed apparent binding activity after injection of the anti-c-Jun antibody, although the nuclear c-Jun could be detected (Figure 1B) by IHC. Our results showed that, during the menstrual cycle, only the glandular c-Jun in the proliferative nuclear extracts could bind to the two AP-1 motifs in the bcl-2 promoter, indicating spatial and temporal binding activities.
Regulation of transcription is the dominant mechanism for the control of gene expression that involves various proteinDNA interactions. The electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) is one of the conventional techniques employed to obtain in vitro evidence of nuclear proteinDNA interactions. However, because only a small amount of glandular nuclear extract can be collected from each uterine endometrium, it is difficult to use EMSA for screening candidate transcription factors. Our experiments showed that the Biacore technique is feasible for solving this problem. The Biacore technique can be used to monitor relative affinities of proteins binding to immobilized DNA fragments (Fisher et al. 1994
In terms of proteinDNA interactions, however, most researchers observed binding affinities and kinetics between biotinylated oligonucleotides immobilized on a SA sensor chip and purified molecules (Buckle et al. 1996
To elucidate whether c-Jun could transcriptionally regulate expression of the bcl-2 gene in a normal human uterine endometrium, we first examined the expression pattern of c-Jun in both the proliferative and secretory phases of the menstrual cycle by IHC. Intense immunoreactivity of c-Jun could be detected in the endometrial glandular cells during the proliferative phase, whereas its immunoreactivity was markedly decreased in the secretory glandular cells. The expression pattern of c-Jun was consistent with that reported by Salmi et al. (1998)
The oncogene product c-Jun has been implicated in mediation of a wide variety of signals by transcribing them into expression of proteins encoded by specific genes (Shaulian and Karin 2001
It is important to determine whether the association of c-Jun with AP-1 motifs from the bcl-2 promoter is regulated in a spatial and a temporal manner. The c-Jun was expressed in the nuclei of stromal cells during both proliferative and secretory phases and in those of a few glandular cells during the secretory phase, as well as in those of glandular cells during the proliferative phase. However, sharp peaks after injection of the anti-c-Jun antibody, indicating the specific binding of c-Jun to AP-1 motifs, were not observed in nuclear extracts from stromal cells during both phases and from glandular cells during the secretory phase. The difference between IHC and binding activities of AP-1 motifs to c-Jun in different nuclear extracts may be explained as follows. First, the function of c-Jun may be different between the proliferative and secretory phases and even between the glandular and stromal nuclei of the same menstrual phase. Of course, the difference in binding activities may be caused by different phosphorylation status of c-Jun protein in nuclear extracts (Rutberg et al 1999 Both the immunohistochemistry and the Biacore analysis clearly showed that c-Jun contained in the nuclear extracts of glandular cells during the proliferative phase specifically bound to two AP-1 sites in the bcl-2 promoter region. These results explain why bcl-2 is expressed cyclically in proliferative glandular cells. Further studies with transcriptional regulation and upstream signal transduction may provide new insights to understand the regulation of proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis of cells in normal human endometrium.
Supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Technology of Japan (no. 10671576).
Received for publication September 18, 2002; accepted August 13, 2003
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