IDENTIFICATION OF A NOVEL CYCLOSPORINE-SENSITIVE ELEMENT IN THE HUMAN TUMOR-NECROSIS-FACTOR-ALPHA GENE PROMOTER

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), a cytokine with pleiotropic biological effects, is produced by a variety of cell types in response to induction by diverse stimuli. In this paper, TNF-alpha mRNA is shown to be highly induced in a murine T cell clone by stimulation with T cell receptor (TCR) ligands or by calcium ionophores alone. Induction is rapid, does not require de novo protein synthesis, and is completely blocked by the immunosuppressant cyclosporin A (CsA). We have identified a human TNF-alpha promoter element, kappa3, which plays a key role in the calcium-mediated inducibility and CsA sensitivity of the gene. In electrophoretic mobility shift assays, an oligonucleotide containing kappa3 forms two DNA protein complexes with proteins that are present in extracts from unstimulated T cells. These complexes appear in nuclear extracts only after T cell stimulation. Induction of the inducible nuclear complexes is rapid, independent of protein synthesis, and blocked by CsA, and thus, exactly parallels the induction of TNF-alpha mRNA by TCR ligands or by calcium ionophore. Our studies indicate that the kappa3 binding factor resembles the preexisting component of nuclear factor of activated T cells. Thus, the TNF-alpha gene is an immediate early gene in activated T cells and provides a new model system in which to study CsA-sensitive gene induction in activated T cells.