Methylation of a conserved intronic CpG island of mouse SF-1 is associated with cell-specific expression of SF-1 in a culture system but not with tissue-specific expression.
The mechanism for the steroidogenic tissue or cell-specific expression of SF-1 has not been well clarified. We examined whether the methylation status of a large CpG island in the first intron of mouse SF-1 gene is associated with the expression level of SF-1 in cultured cells and in tissues. The island consists of three small islands (ICI-1, ICI-2, and ICI-3). In cultured adrenocortical Y-1 cells and in Leydig tumor cells, I-10, that both express high levels of SF-1, the upstream region of ICI-2, ICI-2-1, was clearly hypomethylated compared to cultured mouse bone marrow cells that do not express SF-1. However, this methylation status was not clearly associated with the tissue-specific expression of SF-1, in either adult or during development. These results suggest that methylation of ICI-2-1of SF-1 may partly determine the level of SF-1 expression at the cellular level, but may not be essential at the tissue level.
Shirohzu
Hisao
H
Department of Medicine and Bioregulatory Science, Kyushu University, Maidashi 3-1-1, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan.
Okabe
Taijiro
T
Gondo
Shigeki
S
Tanaka
Tomoko
T
Ohe
Kenji
K
Morinaga
Hidetaka
H
Kawate
Hisaya
H
Nomura
Masatoshi
M
Takayanagi
Ryoichi
R
Nawata
Hajime
H
Yanase
Toshihiko
T
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D018899:CpG Islands / Q000235:genetics*; D019175:DNA Methylation; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D020868:Gene Silencing; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D054339:Steroidogenic Factor 1 / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014018:Tissue Distribution
D054339:Steroidogenic Factor 1