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Department of Pharmacology and Center for Pharmacogenetics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104; and
Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Milan, Italy
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Abstract |
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 Top Abstract IntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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B. Signal transduction is initiated at the
cell membrane by complex formation between extracellular IL-1 and the
transmembrane IL-1R type I (IL-1RI) and IL-1R accessory protein
(IL-1RAcP). The intracellular signaling cascade involves recruitment of
two IL-1R-associated kinases, IRAK1 and IRAK2, and the adapter protein
MyD88, events which are dependent on the intracellular domain of
membrane-bound IL-1RAcP (mIL-1RAcP). In mouse liver, IL-1RAcP is
expressed as a soluble protein (sIL-1RAcP), the function of which is
unknown. We have cloned the human sIL-1RAcP and established by sequence
analysis that the human sIL-1RAcP mRNA arises from alternative splicing
of the IL-1RAcP gene (shown here to encompass 12 exons spanning more
than 56 kb). Furthermore, we demonstrate that human HepG2 hepatoma
cells express both mIL-1RAcP and sIL-1RAcP and that signal transduction
in these cells is mediated through IRAK1, IRAK2, and MyD88. We show
that phorbol esters induce a change in the pre-mRNA splice pattern such
that sIL-1RAcP mRNA becomes the dominant form. Overexpression of a
membrane-anchored fusion protein of sIL-1RAcP and MHC in HepG2 cells
inhibits IL-1-mediated NF-B activation, whereas coexpression of
IL-1RI with membrane-anchored sIL-1RAcP restores the capacity of the
cells to respond to IL-1. This suggests that sIL-1RAcP may act as an
inhibitor of IL-1 by directly interacting with IL-1RI to abolish its
capacity to transduce signal. |
Introduction |
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TopAbstractIntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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B, which mediates the
increased transcription of numerous genes and hence increased synthesis
of a range of proteins, many of which are involved in immunological
responses, e.g., the light chain of Ig (from which the
transcription factor is named (2)) and the major acute
phase reactant serum amyloid A protein (reviewed in Ref.
3). There are two receptors for IL-1. The type I IL-1R (IL-1RI)4 has an extracellular portion of 319 amino acid residues comprising three Ig domains, a transmembrane region of 20 amino acid residues, and an intracellular domain of 213 residues (4), whereas the IL-1R type II (IL-1RII) resembles the type I receptor in that it has three extracellular Ig domains (330 amino acid residues) and a transmembrane region of 26 residues, but differs significantly by having only 29 intracellular amino acid residues (5). Both receptors associate with the IL-1R accessory protein (IL-1RAcP) (6, 7, 8). IL-1-mediated signaling occurs only via the type I receptor. In contrast, the type II receptor, due to its truncated intracellular domain, acts as a ligand sink (9, 10, 11).
The best-described signaling cascade initiated by IL-1 involves a
trimeric protein complex of IL-1, IL-1RI, and IL-1RAcP (reviewed in
Ref. 12). This complex recruits the adapter protein MyD88
via the intracellular domains of IL-1RI and IL-1RAcP, possibly through
protein interactions involving regions of sequence similarity to the C
terminus of MyD88 (13). Two kinases, IL-1R-associated
kinase (IRAK) 1 and 2, are subsequently recruited, and the signaling
cascade further progresses through the TNFR-associated factor 6
(TRAF6), the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase
TGF-ß-activated kinase 1, and the NF-B-inducing kinase (NIK). NIK,
and possibly TGF-ß-activated kinase 1, is part of the inhibitor of
NF-B (IB) kinase complex that additionally contains the two IB
kinases IKK-
and IKK-ß as well as NF-B in association with
IB; these may be held together by the scaffold proteins IKK-
and
IKK complex-associated protein (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21). After the IB
in the IKK complex is phosphorylated, it becomes degraded by the
ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, and NF-B can then translocate to the
nucleus where it activates transcription by binding to specific binding
sites in the promoters of numerous genes (see Ref. 12 for
references). Several kinases are activated by IL-1, and the involvement
of a small G protein in IL-1 signaling has been suggested. However, the
mechanism whereby these components interact with the above cascade has
not been determined (for review, see Ref. 12).
Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase appears to associate with the cytoplasmic
region of IL-1RAcP and to initiate a parallel signaling pathway leading
to phosphorylation of NF-B subunits, an event essential for full
activition of the transcription factor (22).
The IL-1RAcP is structurally very similar to IL-1RI and IL-1RII and
shares 
25% sequence identity with each (6). Its
extracellular domain of 340 amino acid residues is divided into three
Ig domains and the transmembrane and intracellular domains are 29 and
181 amino acid residues, respectively. IL-1RAcP was identified in 1995
as a component that is needed for the IL-1R to be fully functional
(6). Many studies have since confirmed that the
IL-1RAcP is indeed essential for IL-1-mediated responses such
as activation of IRAK, NF-B, Jun N-terminal kinase, and acid
sphingomyelinase and for receptor/IL-1 complex internalization
(23, 24, 25, 26). However, the exact mechanism whereby IL-1RAcP
contributes to the function of the IL-1 binding complex has remained
obscure. There have been conflicting reports of the effect of
IL-1RAcP on the binding kinetics and dissociation constants
of IL-1 and IL-1ß (6, 25, 27, 28). The C terminus of
MyD88 has sequence similarity to the intracellular domain of IL-1RAcP
and somewhat weaker similarity to that of IL-1RI. When MyD88 is
overexpressed, it can be coimmunoprecipitated with IL-1RAcP, but not
with IL-1RI (13). Additionally, IRAK1 interacts with
IL-1RAcP, whereas IRAK2 preferentially coimmunoprecipitates
with IL-1RI; the latter may interact indirectly with the IL-1RAcP via a
death domain (protein-protein interaction domain described initially
for proteins involved in apoptosis) that is present in the N termini of
both IRAK2 and MyD88 (13, 29, 30). The reports
documenting the above suggest that the intracellular domain
of IL-1RAcP is essential for signaling from the IL-1 binding complex,
and indeed a deletion mutant of IL-1RAcP lacking the majority of the
intracellular domain fails to recruit IRAK1 to the IL-1 binding complex
and activate NF-B (29).
In mice, the hepatic form of IL-1RAcP mRNA is only 1.8 kb compared
with 5.3 kb in all other tissues analyzed, a size difference that
has been attributed to alternative splicing (6). The mouse
hepatic IL-1RAcP lacks the membrane and intracellular domains of the
membrane-bound form and is presumably secreted. This soluble IL-1RAcP
(sIL-1RAcP) has so far only been described in mouse liver, and its
function has not been determined (6). However, it seems
unlikely that sIL-1RAcP would be able to participate in signal
transduction from the IL-1 binding complex because it lacks the
intracellular domain. This raises the question of how signal
transduction takes place in hepatocytes. To address this we have cloned
the human homologue of the hepatic sIL-1RAcP and investigated
its relationship to the IL-1RAcP gene structure, its function in
IL-1-mediated NF-B activation, and its expression during stress
responses.
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Materials and Methods |
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TopAbstractIntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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A human acute-phase liver cDNA library (31) was
screened using the oligonucleotide 5'-AGTGATCCTCTGAATGCC-3' (from human
membrane-bound IL-1RAcP (mIL-1RAcP); GenBank accession no. AB006537,
position 477–460 in Fig. 1
A),
and a partial cDNA clone encoding the C-terminal 218 amino acid
residues and the 767-bp 3'-untranslated region (UTR) of sIL-1RAcP was
identified. The remaining sequence corresponding to the 138 N-terminal
amino acids of sIL-1RAcP was obtained by RT-PCR using a forward primer
(5'-CAAAGGATGACACTTCTGTGG-3') comprising six nucleotides of the Kozak
sequence and 15 nucleotides of the coding region derived from GenBank
accession no. AB006537 and a reverse primer
(5'-GACCGCATCTATTACCTTTC-3') specific for the soluble form (position
1066–1047 in Fig. 1A). Genomic DNA from HepG2 cells,
isolated by conventional methods, and plasmid DNA containing mIL-1RAcP
cDNA were used as negative controls to validate the specific
amplification of sIL-1RAcP. The PCR product encoding the N-terminal
region of sIL-1RAcP was ligated to the sIL-1RAcP-specific C-terminal
region at a unique internal Sun I restriction site.
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The choice of primers dispersed throughout the cDNA was based on sequence in GenBank accession no. AB006537. Gene fragments were amplified using Expand Long Template, Expand High Fidelity PCR systems (Boehringer Mannheim, Indianapolis, IN) or Human GenomeWalker Kit (Clontech Laboratories, Palo Alto, CA) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Human genomic DNA (Boehringer Mannheim) or DNA from HepG2 cells were used as templates for long-template PCR. PCR products were gel purified (Qiagen, Santa Clarita, CA) and sequenced. All new sequences reported here and deposited in the GenBank database were sequenced in both directions. Sequence was obtained for the entire available cDNA.
DNA constructs
The Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) promoter was amplified by PCR
(32) and cloned into the Renilla-luciferase pRL-null
vector (Promega, Madison, WI). The deletion mutants IRAK11–217(1–217) of
IRAK1 and TRAF6289–522(289–522) of TRAF6 were generated by RT-PCR from total
RNA isolated from epithelial KB cells and were cloned into the
expression vector pCI-neo (Promega). Primers for IRAK11–217(1–217)
5'-GCGGCAGCCATGGCCGGGG-3' (forward) and
5'-TCACTTGAGCTCCTCCGAGAAGTTGTGG-3' (reverse) were derived from GenBank
accession no. L76191. Primers for TRAF6289–522(289–522)
5'-ATCTCAGAGGTCCGGAATTTCC-3' (forward) and 5'-CTATACCCTGCATCAGTAC-3'
(reverse) were derived from GenBank accession no. U78798. A
membrane-bound deletion mutant of mIL-1RAcP (IL-1RAcP1–403(1–403)) was
generated from an existing construct containing mIL-1RAcP cDNA by PCR
using the primer pair 5'-TCAGAACGCTGCGATGACTGG-3' (forward) and
5'-TCACAGTAATACAAATTCTTCTTCTTCC-3' (reverse) and was cloned into
the pFlag-CMV-1 expression vector (Kodak, New Haven, CT). The
coding regions for pro-sIL-1RAcP and mature sIL-1RAcP were subcloned
into pCI-neo and pFlag-CMV-1, respectively. The fusion protein
sIL-1RAcP-MHC was generated by RT-PCR amplification of the conserved
transmembrane and intracellular domains (74 C-terminal amino acid
residues and stop codon) of MHC class II (GenBank accession no.
AF016641) with the forward primer 5'-GGGCTGCCGAAGCCCCTC-3' and
the reverse primer 5'-TCAAGCTGTGAGAGACACATCAG-3' and by insertion
of the product in frame after the coding region of sIL-1RAcP. A control
plasmid was generated by cloning the above MHC product into empty
pFlag-CMV-1. The nucleotide sequences of cloned constructs were
verified by sequencing. The NF-B-luciferase reporter construct
containing the E-selectin promoter ((-730) - (+52)) and the
expression constructs specifying Flag-Ag-tagged IL-1RI, Flag-IL-1RAcP,
MyD88152–296(152–296), IRAK297–590(97–590), and NIK(KK429–430AA) are described
elsewhere (13).
Cell lines and transfections
Human hepatoma cells (HepG2) were obtained from the American
Type Culture Collection (Manassas, VA) and maintained in DMEM with 25
mM HEPES and glutamax-1 (L-alanyl-L-glutamine)
supplemented with 10% (v/v) FCS, 1 mM sodium pyruvate, 0.01 mM
nonessential amino acids, and 50 µg/ml gentamicin (Life Technologies,
Grand Island, NY). Cells were grown to 50% confluence and
transfected with 2–3 µg total DNA using the calcium phosphate
precipitation method. In experiments in which cells were transfected
with varying amounts of expression vectors, the total DNA used in each
transfection was held constant by cotransfecting appropriate amounts of
empty vector. Cells were allowed to recover in fresh medium for 24
h, after which they were treated with medium (control), IL-1ß (10
ng/ml; National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD), or TNF- (50 ng/ml;
Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, Macclesfield, U.K.) for 6 h. Cells were
lysed and lysates were assayed for luciferase and Renilla luciferase
activity according to the manufacturer’s instructions (Dual-Luciferase
Reporter Assay System, Promega). Before RNA extraction, cells were
treated with IL-1ß, TNF-, and the phorbol esters PMA and phorbol
12,13-didecanoate (PDD) (Sigma, St. Louis, MO).
Northern blotting and quantitative RT-PCR
Isolation of total RNA, Northern blotting, and RT-PCR were performed as described elsewhere (33). Reverse transcription of 1 µg total RNA was performed at 50°C using avian myeloblastosis virus reverse transcriptase and oligo(dT)15 primer (Promega) and ANTI-RNase RNase inhibitor (Ambion, Austin, Tx). Quantitative PCR was performed as described elsewhere (33). A 357-bp product was amplified from sIL-1RAcP mRNA with the forward primer QF (5'-GATGGATTCTCGCAATGAGG-3') and the reverse primer QRS2 (5'-ACTATGGGTTAGATGCCGTC-3'). A 305-bp product was amplified from mIL-1RAcP with the QF primer and the reverse primer QRM (5'-TGAGAATCACCACTAGCAGG-3'). PCR products were analyzed on SYBR Green I-stained (Molecular Probes, Eugene, Oregon) agarose gels using STORM and ImageQuant technology (Molecular Dynamics, Sunnyvale, CA).
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Results |
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TopAbstractIntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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A human acute-phase liver cDNA library (31) was
screened with the oligonucleotide 5'-AGTGATCCTCTGAATGCC-3', which
corresponds to antisense sequence in the extracellular domain of the
published sequence of mIL-1RAcP. A clone (L1), which shares sequence
identity with human mIL-1RAcP (414–1051 in Fig. 1
A) at its
5' end but which has a unique 3' end of 806 nucleotides, was identified
(from 1052 in Fig. 1A). The 3' end contains a
polyadenylation site at position 1791–1796 (Fig. 1A) and
also includes 22 residues of the poly(A)-tail, suggesting that this
clone represents a uniquely expressed mRNA. A potential alternative
splice site is present at position 1050–1054, where the sequence of L1
diverges from that of mIL-1RAcP; this marks the region where the
sIL-1RAcP diverges from the membrane-bound form.
A RT-PCR strategy was applied to obtain cDNA sequence corresponding to
the N terminus of sIL-1RAcP. A forward primer was designed for the six
nucleotides upstream of the translation start site and the first 15
nucleotides of the coding region of the mIL-1RAcP. A reverse primer was
designed across the potential alternative splice site at position
1066–1047 in Fig. 1A. A single RT-PCR product of 1 kb
was obtained from HepG2 total RNA. To verify that this product could
only be derived from sIL-1RAcP mRNA, control amplification reactions
using either HepG2 genomic DNA or a plasmid containing the mIL-1RAcP
cDNA were included. These latter PCR reactions did not give any
products (not shown). The specific PCR product was fused with the clone
isolated from the cDNA library at an internal Sun I restriction site
and was cloned into the expression vector pCI-Neo.
The first 350 amino acid residues of the soluble and membrane-bound
forms of human IL-1RAcP are identical. Clone L1, isolated from the cDNA
library, revealed that sIL-1RAcP has an additional six residues
C-terminal to the common region, giving a full-length polypeptide of
356 including the signal peptide and a mature protein of 336 amino acid
residues. In comparison to this, mIL-1RAcP has an additional 10
extracellular, 29 transmembrane, and 181 intracellular amino acid
residues (6). The C-terminal six amino acid residues of
the human sIL-1RAcP are four residues shorter than the corresponding
region of mouse sIL-1RAcP. Overall, the full-length human sIL-1RAcP
polypeptide sequence has 85% identity and 90% similarity to the mouse
homologue (Fig. 1B).
Structure of the IL-1RAcP gene and alternative splice sites
It has been suggested that the soluble form of IL-1RAcP could arise from alternative splicing (6). To investigate this possibility we designed a forward PCR primer specific for the 3' end of the common region of the two forms of IL-1RAcP and two forward primers specific for the 3' ends of the 3' UTR of each. Reverse primers specific for each of the membrane and soluble 5' ends were designed.
Using human genomic DNA as template, an 17-kb PCR product (gAcP25)
was amplified using the sIL-1RAcP 3' UTR forward primer in combination
with the mIL-1RAcP 5' reverse primer. Sequencing of gAcP25 confirmed
the presence of additional 5' mIL-1RAcP-specific sequence and revealed
the presence of a 1301-bp intron that divides this sequence into two
exons (Fig. 2). Intronic sequence (15
kb) was found upstream of the mIL-1RAcP- and downstream of the
sIL-1RAcP-specific sequences. An 2.5-kb PCR product (gAcP4) was
obtained using the common forward primer with a reverse primer specific
for the sIL-1RAcP 3' UTR; this yielded the entire sIL-1RAcP-specific
sequence contiguous with the common region (Fig. 2). An intron of 1.9
kb was identified in the common region amplified in gAcP4.
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and Table I), and the signal peptide is encoded by
exon 3. The first Ig domain is encoded by a single exon (exon 4; Fig. 2
and Table I). Ig domains 2 and 3 are each encoded by two exons (exons 5
and 6 and exons 8 and 9, respectively; Fig. 2 and Table I) and are
separated by a small additional exon (exon 7; Fig. 2 and Table I) of 72
bp. The exon encoding the second half of Ig domain 3 is followed by the
exon encoding the C-terminal region and 3' UTR of sIL-1RAcP. An intron
of 15 kb separates the sIL-1RAcP 3' UTR from the exon encoding the
transmembrane domain (exon 10; Fig. 2 and Table I) of mIL-1RAcP. The
intracellular domain of mIL-1RAcP is encoded by two exons (exons 11 and
12; Fig. 2 and Table I), of which the second also encodes the 3' UTR of
mIL-1RAcP. All introns follow the GT-AG rule. One sequence discrepancy,
an insertion of TA, relative to the cDNA sequence (AB006537) was found
at position 2336. The boundaries of exon 5 are in agreement with those
previously submitted to GenBank (accession no. AF016261) in connection
with mapping of the IL-1RAcP gene to chromosome 3
(34).
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To determine which signaling pathway is utilized to transduce
signal from the IL-1R and activate NF-B in human HepG2 cells, we
overexpressed dominant-negative mutants of early components in the IL-1
signaling pathway and measured the activity of NF-B after treatment
with IL-1ß or TNF- using a NF-B-luciferase reporter construct.
TNF- was used as a control to ensure that effects were specific to
the IL-1 signaling pathway. The TNF and IL-1 signaling pathways leading
to NF-B activation are initially distinct but converge at NIK, i.e.,
NIK is activated by both IL-1 and TNF, whereas the earlier components
analyzed in this study should be specific to the IL-1 signaling
cascade. Cells transfected with empty vector together with the
NF-B-luciferase reporter and RSV-Renilla construct exhibited a
strong NF-B activity as measured by the NF-B reporter construct
when treated with IL-1ß compared with cells treated with medium only
(15- to 150-fold induction). Treatment of similarly transfected cells
with TNF- resulted in NF-B activities of 50% of those
achieved by IL-1ß treatment. The significance of results was assessed
using standard t test.
Cotransfection of cells with a construct encoding a kinase-inactive
NIK, NIK(KK429–430AA), together with the NF-B reporter and
RSV-Renilla constructs resulted in changed IL-1ß and TNF-
responses (Fig. 3A) that were
both dependent on the concentration of the NIK inactive construct. At
the lowest concentrations (0.01 µg/transfection) an increase in
IL-1ß-induced NF-B activity was detected in two of three
independent experiments. The significance of this observation is
unknown. At the highest concentration (1.25 µg/transfection), the
IL-1ß- and TNF--induced NF-B activities were reduced to 35%
(p < 0.01) and 30% (p
< 0.001), respectively, relative to that in control cells transfected
with empty vector.
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60%
(p < 0.001) of the full response in control
cells (Fig. 3B) to 25% (p <
0.001) at the lowest and highest concentrations of cotransfected DNA,
respectively, was achieved by overexpression of a deletion mutant of
TRAF6, TRAF6289–522(289–522), which lacks a RING finger and five potential
zinc-finger motifs that are believed to be involved in protein-protein
interactions with other members (most probably NIK) of the signaling
cascade (14). The TNF--induced response remained
virtually unchanged (Fig. 3B). This suggests that both NIK
and TRAF6 are involved in the IL-1 signaling cascade in HepG2
cells. Components recruited to the IL-1 binding complex
To investigate whether the IL-1 binding complex functionally
requires MyD88 and the IRAK1 and IRAK2 kinases as previously reported,
we overexpressed dominant-negative deletion mutants of these proteins.
A deletion mutant of MyD88, MyD88152–296(152–296), which lacks the death
domain, reduced the IL-1ß-induced NF-B response to 25%
(p < 0.001; at highest concentrations of 1.25
µg/transfection) of that in control cells (Fig. 4A) in a specific and
concentration-dependent manner. In contrast, the TNF--induced
response remained constant. This indicates that MyD88 is involved in
IL-1ß-mediated signaling leading to NF-B activation but not in
that mediated by TNF-.
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B) of a deletion mutant of IRAK1
lacking the kinase domain (IRAK11–217(1–217)). NF-B activity could be
further reduced using higher amounts of this construct, up to 250
ng/transfection, at which the IL-1ß-induced response was only 20%
(p < 0.001) of that in control cells. No
inhibition of the TNF--induced response is apparent (Fig. 4B), suggesting that, as with MyD88, IRAK1 is only involved
in the IL-1ß-mediated NF-B activation and not in that mediated by
TNF-. A deletion mutant of IRAK2 (IRAK297–590(97–590)) lacking the death
domain could also specifically, but to a lesser extent (reduction to
50%; p < 0.001), inhibit the IL-1ß response
(Fig. 4C). Taken together, these results suggest that the "signaling complex" recruited to the IL-1 binding complex is assembled as previously described (13, 15).
Components in the IL-1 binding complex
We further analyzed the effects of overexpressing components in
the IL-1 binding complex itself. The cells used in these studies were
treated with IL-1ß or TNF- at concentrations that would produce an
optimal response (10 ng/ml and 50 ng/ml, respectively) or were treated
with a lower concentration of IL-1ß that was only sufficient to
produce a response 10 times lower than that of the optimal IL-1ß
concentration.
After introducing as little as 0.1 ng/transfection of an IL-1RI
expression construct, we observed an 2-fold
(p < 0.01) increase in the cellular response
to the suboptimal concentration of IL-1ß (Fig. 5A), and using 2
ng/transfection the cellular response could be further augmented such
that the "suboptimal" IL-1ß concentration could produce the same
effect as the "optimal" IL-1ß concentration. Overexpression of
IL-1RI had no measurable effect on cells treated with optimal amounts
of either IL-1ß or TNF- (Fig. 5A). In addition,
overexpression of mIL-1RAcP (up to 1.25 µg/transfection) had no
effect on IL-1ß or TNF--treated cells (not shown). This suggests
that it is the number of IL-1RI molecules, and not IL-1RAcP, on the
cell membrane that determines the magnitude of the cellular response
to IL-1.
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B). At the highest amounts of transfected
sIL-1RAcP-MHC used (1.25 µg/transfection), the responses to
suboptimal and optimal amounts of IL-1ß were reduced to 5%
(p < 0.001) and 10%
(p < 0.01), respectively, relative to
controls. No significant change in the response to TNF- was observed
(Fig. 5B). Cotransfection of a deletion mutant of mIL-1RAcP
(IL-1RAcP1–403(1–403)) lacking the entire intracellular domain gave similar
results (not shown). Furthermore, cotransfection of a control plasmid,
CMV-Flag-MHC, expressing only the MHC domain of the sIL-1RAcP-MHC
fusion protein had no such effect (not shown).
When cells are cotransfected with both IL-1RI and mIL-1RAcP, a
spontaneous activation of NF-B can be observed in cells treated with
medium only (p < 0.001; Fig. 5C).
This spontaneous activation has been used in some previous studies of
the IL-1 signaling cascade (13) as the model system of
IL-1R complex activation. However, such spontaneous activation does not
take place when cells are cotransfected with IL-1RI and sIL-1RAcP-MHC
(not shown). When cells are cotransfected with a fixed amount of
construct encoding sIL-1RAcP-MHC and increasing amounts of IL-1RI
construct, a pattern somewhat similar to the one observed when cells
are transfected with the IL-1RI construct alone is seen. In cells
transfected with 250 ng of the sIL-1RAcP expression construct,
transfection of 2 ng of IL-1RI expression construct is sufficient to
bring NF-B activation after treatment with both suboptimal and
optimal amounts of IL-1ß back to the level of that observed in
control cells transfected with the empty vector (Fig. 5D).
However, it is not sufficient to cause the shift of
"suboptimal-to-optimal" level of activation seen when the cells are
transfected with the IL-1RI construct alone. Transfection of 10 ng
IL-1RI construct into cells cotransfected with the sIL-1RAcP-MHC
construct results in an 2-fold (p < 0.01)
increase in response to the suboptimal amount of IL-1ß compared with
control cells transfected with empty vector (Fig. 5D). This
is 100 times more than is needed to cause the same change in the
IL-1ß response of cells transfected with the IL-1RI construct only.
Similar results were obtained when increasing amounts of the mIL-1RAcP
construct were cotransfected with a fixed amount of sIL-1RAcP-MHC (not
shown).
These results suggest that it is the number of available IL-1RI molecules that determines cellular sensitivity to IL-1ß and that sIL-1RAcP may act as an inhibitor of IL-1ß by rendering the IL-1RI nonfunctional in a signaling context, although it is probably still able to bind IL-1ß.
Expression of membrane and soluble IL-1RAcP mRNA in human hepatoma cells and acute-phase liver
Experiments using conventional Northern blot analysis to determine which form of the IL-1RAcP is expressed in hepatoma cells were not sensitive enough to detect any mRNA. Therefore, we developed a quantitative semicompetitive RT-PCR in which sIL-1RAcP and mIL-1RAcP cDNA products can be amplified using the same forward primer in combination with reverse primers specific for each form; this approach generates 357-bp and 305-bp PCR products, respectively. The first 233 bp of the two PCR products are identical and the relative amounts may be assessed by amplifying both sIL-1RAcP and mIL-1RAcP in the same reaction. To confirm that an accurate determination of the ratio of the two splice variants can be established using this method, plasmids encoding sIL-1RAcP and mIL-1RAcP were mixed in different ratios. Aliquots were removed after different numbers of amplification cycles and were analyzed on SYBR Green-stained 2.5% agarose gels. The ratios of sIL-1RAcP product to mIL-1RAcP product remained unchanged during both the exponential and plateau phases of amplification (not shown).
We then analyzed RNA samples extracted from HepG2 hepatoma cells after
treatment with the phorbol esters PDD and PMA for 1–96 h using the
above quantitative PCR method. In cells treated with medium only (0 h;
Fig. 6), mIL-1RAcP mRNA constituted
approximately two-thirds of the total amount of IL-1RAcP cDNA. PDD
elicited a gradual change in the ratio of the two alternative splice
variants over time: after 12 h of incubation with PDD, mIL-1RAcP
and sIL-1RAcP mRNAs were present in equal amounts, whereas after 24 and
36 h, the sIL-1RAcP splice form had become the dominant species
(Fig. 6). After 72 h, at which time the cells still appeared
healthy, the ratio showed a reversal in trend toward normal. The change
induced by PDD was concentration dependent (not shown). PMA gave rise
to a similar, but less dramatic, change in the ratio between the two
mRNA species (not shown).
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Discussion |
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TopAbstractIntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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B, but the mechanism whereby it
contributes to this process is still largely unknown. In addition to
the membrane-bound form of IL-1RAcP, a soluble form of the protein has
also been identified (6). The sIL-1RAcP has so far only
been identified in mouse liver (6), mouse T cell lymphomas
(25), and rat brain (35), and its function
has remained obscure. We have cloned the human sIL-1RAcP and
demonstrated that it arises from alternative splicing. The relative
proportion of alternatively spliced forms of IL-1RAcP mRNA in HepG2
cells changes in response to stress and/or acute-phase induction and
becomes biased toward sIL-1RAcP mRNA. We hypothesize that sIL-1RAcP
acts as an inhibitor of IL-1 signal transduction by associating with
the IL-1RI to reduce or eliminate its signaling capacity.
Contradictory hypotheses have been offered as to whether it is the
level of membrane expression of IL-1RI or of IL-1RAcP that regulates
the cellular response to IL-1, but no definitive data to resolve this
issue have been reported (8, 36). HepG2 cells express high
levels of IL-1RII and low levels of IL-1RI (Ref. 37 and
L. E. Jensen, unpublished observation). This leads to strong
competition between the two receptors for binding IL-1 when this
cytokine is present at suboptimal levels (the suboptimal concentration
of 0.1 ng/ml used in this paper is similar to the maximum physiological
concentrations of 0.2–0.5 ng/ml in human blood during sepsis
(1)). Increasing the cell surface expression of IL-1RI
would shift the balance toward more IL-1/IL-1RI complexes and would
result in a higher level of NF-B activation, which is in accordance
with our observations. Because the increased expression of mIL-1RAcP
reported here had no influence on the efficiency of signal
transduction, it is likely that the level of IL-1RI is the variable
that controls the response to IL-1. Our observations that expression of
a membrane-anchored form of sIL-1RAcP results in almost 100%
inhibition of the NF-B activation that can be induced by IL-1 at
physiological concentrations and that this inhibition can be
reversed/prevented by coexpression of IL-1RI suggest that IL-1RI is
regulated at the membrane by sIL-1RAcP such that, although all of the
IL-1RI molecules are capable of binding IL-1, only a limited number are
actually able to mediate signal transduction. This interaction
constitutes an additional layer of receptor competition. Given that we
have only been able to achieve an effect on the level of NF-B
activation with the membrane-anchored form of sIL-1RAcP, we cannot
exclude the possibility that the native protein may have an additional
function. A component downstream of the IL-1 binding complex might be
an additional limiting factor because NF-B activation is clearly
saturated at optimal concentrations of IL-1. However, we do not believe
that this is physiologically significant because the optimal
concentration of IL-1 in cell culture experiments is probably very much
higher than that achieved in vivo.
It is not known precisely how IL-1RAcP interacts with the IL-1RI. We have demonstrated that overexpression of a membrane-anchored form of the sIL-1RAcP in which both the transmembrane and small intracellular domains are unrelated to the equivalent domains in mIL-1RAcP results in specific inhibition of the IL-1 signaling cascade. We have also observed that a deletion mutant of IL-1RAcP that lacks the entire intracellular domain can also inhibit IL-1-mediated signaling. This establishes that extracellular interactions between IL-1RAcP and IL-1RI are sufficient to mediate the association of the two proteins, leading to measurable biological effect. The possibility that there are additional interactions between the transmembrane and intracellular domains is not formally excluded; however, such interactions, if they do occur, are not necessary for the biological effects reported here.
There are currently two models for the interaction among IL-1RI, IL-1RAcP, and IL-1. In the first model, IL-1RI and IL-1RAcP are already associated and the subsequent binding of IL-1 results in a conformational change in IL-1RI that initiates the downstream signaling cascade. In the second model, IL-1RI and IL-1RAcP become associated only after IL-1 binds to IL-1RI and may involve a permissive conformational change that facilitates recruitment of IL-1RAcP or down-stream signaling components. However, the observation that overexpression of IL-1RI and mIL-1RAcP together causes a "spontaneous activation" of the IL-1 signaling cascade (reported in this paper and elsewhere (13)) suggests that such an IL-1-mediated conformational change is not essential for activation of the signaling cascade and provides good evidence in favor of the second model. Under this model, IL-1RI and mIL-1RAcP will only rarely come together by chance because they are normally expressed at low levels and spontaneous activation, therefore, does not occur; however, when both proteins are overexpressed, random association and spontaneous activation becomes more likely. In nontransfected cells with normal levels of membrane components, IL-1 may promote an increased affinity between IL-1RI and mIL-1RAcP to produce a complex that is sufficiently stable to allow the recruitment of additional intracellular signaling components.
Only a limited number of studies of IL-1RAcP expression has been
published. Bacterial LPS causes a moderate up-regulation of mIL-1RAcP
mRNA in human monocytes (38), and induction of mIL-1RAcP
mRNA has been demonstrated in lung, spleen, and thymus tissue from mice
injected with IL-1 (6). High levels of constitutive
mIL-1RAcP expression have been demonstrated in mouse brain tissue
(6); however, another group has reported that in rats,
IL-1 causes an up-regulation in the expression of both sIL-1RAcP and
mIL-1RAcP in brain tissue (see Ref. 35 and its
references). In this latter study, no significant change in the ratio
of mIL-1RAcP to sIL-1RAcP mRNA was reported. Expression of mouse liver
sIL-1RAcP mRNA has previously been shown to be constitutive
(6). Our results establish that both mIL-1RAcP and
sIL-1RAcP mRNAs, generated by alternative splicing, are expressed in
human HepG2 cells; however, in untreated cells, the ratio of mIL-1RAcP
mRNA to sIL-1RAcP mRNA is 2:1. The ratio of these alternatively
spliced mRNAs changes significantly after treatment with inflammatory
mediators. The phorbol esters PMA and PDD, wide spectrum inducers of
nitric oxide synthase, and protein kinase C activation (39, 40) induce an early response (3–36 h) in which the ratio
becomes biased toward sIL-1RAcP mRNA. Factors that control tissue and
developmentally specific alternative splicing have previously been
identified (see Ref. 41 for references), and such a factor
may direct the alternative splicing of IL-1RAcP pre-mRNA in liver
cells; if so, the activity of the factor could be controlled by
extracellular stimuli. Another mechanism whereby the ratio of the two
IL-1RAcP mRNA species may be altered is differential stability. The 3'
UTRs of the sIL-1RAcP and mIL-1RAcP mRNAs, respectively, contain two
and 14 AUUUA sequence motifs (L. E. Jensen, unpublished
observation) that are common in mRNAs of components of the inflammatory
response and have previously been shown to confer instability
(42, 43). Therefore, the mIL-1RAcP mRNA may be
significantly less stable than sIL-1RAcP mRNA during the acute-phase
response; rapid degradation of mIL-1RAcP mRNA would yield an IL-1RAcP
mRNA profile that is dominated by sIL-1RAcP mRNA.
IL-1 is a proinflammatory cytokine involved in the early stages of inflammation and the acute-phase response (1). Extracellular signals received by liver cells during the acute-phase response, analogous to those we generated by the phorbol esters PMA and PDD, may change the bias in alternative splicing of the IL-1RAcP pre-mRNA to permit the sIL-1RAcP mRNA to become predominant, thereby limiting the cellular response to IL-1.
The IL-1RI and IL-1RII genes are believed to be derived from a common ancestor because the positions of introns relative to sequence encoding the extracellular regions are almost identical (44). The IL-1RAcP gene structure resembles that of IL-1RI in that 1) two exons specify the 5' UTR, 2) the signal peptide is encoded by one exon, and 3) the extracellular, transmembrane, and intracellular regions are encoded by six, one, and two exons, respectively. In addition, the second intracellular exon also encodes the 3' UTR. Introns are positioned at similar positions within the two genes. The genomic arrangement of the IL-1RII gene is consequently very similar but distinguishes itself by not having an intron between the 5' UTR and signal peptide-encoding regions (44). The IL-1RI gene distinguishes itself by having a shorter exon 4 encoding the N terminus of the mature protein than the equivalent exons 4 and 3, respectively, in the IL-1RAcP and IL-1RII genes do. Unlike the IL-1RI and IL-1RII genes, which are both located on chromosome (45), the IL-1RAcP gene maps to chromosome 3 (34). All of the above suggest that the IL-1RI, IL-1RII, and IL-1RAcP genes have evolved from a common ancestor and have adopted features required to mediate different functions.
From the IL-1RAcP gene structure we have been able to determine that
the two forms of IL-1RAcP arise from alternative splicing and that the
sIL-1RAcP mRNA is derived from the first nine exons, whereas mIL-1RAcP
mRNA arises from splicing of exon 10 to exon 9 at an internal splice
site in exon 9 (Table I). This internal splice site is seven
nucleotides further downstream of the one suggested by Greenfeder et
al. (Ref. 6 and Fig. 1B). A splice site similar
to the one identified by us in humans is also present in the mouse
mIL-1RAcP cDNA sequence. Unfortunately, the mouse sIL-1RAcP nucleotide
sequence and complete amino acid sequence have never been published,
and it is therefore not possible to determine whether different splice
sites for the mIL-1RAcP are used in mice and humans.
In this paper we have reported the cloning of the human sIL-1RAcP and have characterized the IL-1RAcP gene that encodes the two alternatively spliced forms (sIL-1RAcP and mIL-1RAcP). In addition, we have shown that a membrane-anchored form of sIL-1RAcP inhibits IL-1-mediated cell activation and that the splicing pattern of the IL-1RAcP pre-mRNA changes in response to stress. This suggests that IL-1RAcP is a very important factor in controlling the IL-1 response. Future work on the biological activity of the native sIL-1RAcP and characterization of the tissue-specific expression of mIL-1RAcP and sIL-1RAcP and the mechanism whereby the above switch is triggered during the acute-phase response will enhance our understanding of IL-1-mediated signaling and may contribute to our overall understanding of the biochemical basis of cytokine and hormone actions in general.
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Footnotes |
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2 The sequences presented in this article have been submitted to GenBank under the accession numbers AF167333–AF167343.
3 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Liselotte E. Jensen, Department of Pharmacology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 156 Johnson Pavilion, 3620 Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6084.
4 Abbreviations used in this paper: IL-1RI, IL-1R type I; IL-1RII, IL-1R type II; IL-1RAcP, IL-1R accessory protein; IRAK, IL-1R-associated kinase; TRAF6, TNFR-associated factor 6; NIK, NF-B-inducing kinase; IB, inhibitor of NF-B; IKK, IB kinase; sIL-1RAcP, soluble IL-1RAcP; mIL-1RAcP, membrane-bound IL-1RAcP; RSV, Rous sarcoma virus; PDD, phorbol 12,13-didecanoate; UTR, untranslated region.
Received for publication October 5, 1999. Accepted for publication March 1, 2000.
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