Browsing by Subject "Transcriptional repressors"

Filter results by typing the first few letters
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    CD8 lineage-specific regulation of interleukin-7 receptor expression by the transcriptional repressor Gfi1
    (The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc., 2012) Ligons, D. L.; Tuncer, C.; Linowes, B. A.; Akcay, I. M.; Kurtulus, S.; Deniz, E.; Arslan, B. A.; Cevik, S. I.; Keller, H. R.; Luckey, M. A.; Feigenbaum, L.; Möröy, T.; Ersahin, T.; Atalay, R.; Erman, B.; Park, J. H.
    Interleukin-7 receptor α (IL-7Rα) is essential for T cell survival and differentiation. Glucocorticoids are potent enhancers of IL-7Rα expression with diverse roles in T cell biology. Here we identify the transcriptional repressor, growth factor independent-1 (Gfi1), as a novel intermediary in glucocorticoid-induced IL-7Rα up-regulation. We found Gfi1 to be a major inhibitory target of dexamethasone by microarray expression profiling of 3B4.15 T-hybridoma cells. Concordantly, retroviral transduction of Gfi1 significantly blunted IL-7Rα up-regulation by dexamethasone. To further assess the role of Gfi1 in vivo, we generated bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) transgenic mice, in which a modified Il7r locus expresses GFP to report Il7r gene transcription. By introducing this BAC reporter transgene into either Gfi1-deficient or Gfi1-transgenic mice, we document in vivo that IL-7Rα transcription is up-regulated in the absence of Gfi1 and down-regulated when Gfi1 is overexpressed. Strikingly, the in vivo regulatory role of Gfi1 was specific for CD8+, and not CD4+ T cells or immature thymocytes. These results identify Gfi1 as a specific transcriptional repressor of the Il7r gene in CD8 T lymphocytes in vivo.