Proliferative dependent regulation of the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase/uracil DNA glycosylase gene in human cells

Abstract

The relationship between the proliferative dependent expression of the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH)/uracil DNA glycosylase (UDG) gene and the induction of uracil DNA glycosylase activity was examined in human cells. Three different cell types were studied to determine whether the growth-dependent regulation of this multifunctional gene was a common characteristic of human cells. These included WI-38 normal embryonic lung fibro-blasts, a Japanese Bloom's syndrome non-transformed skin fibroblast cell strain (GM-05289) and a lymphoblastoid cell line transformed by the Epstein-Barr virus. The Japanese Bloom's syndrome cells displayed the altered immuno-reactivity with marker monoclonal antibody 40.10.09 which characterizes cells from this human genetic disorder. In non-cycling human cells Northern blot analysis using a plasmid (pChug 20.1) which contained the human GAPDH/UDG cDNA revealed a single 1.6 kb transcript. In each case, the expression of this gene was increased during cell proliferation. This increase in GAPDH/UDG gene expression was identical to that observed for UDG enzyme activity. Further, using anti-human UDG monoclonal antibodies, there was a growth-dependent rise in immunoreactivity suggesting an increase in the level of antigenic protein. These results demonstrate that: (i) the expression of the GAPDH/UDG gene was dependent on the proliferative state of the cell; and (ii) a correlation existed between the transcription of this gene and the level of uracil DNA glycosylase enzyme activity.