HMG-CoA 환원효소 억제제에 의한 ICAM-1 유전자의 발현조절 = HMG-CoA Reductase Modulates the IFN-γ-mediated ICAM-1 Gene Expression

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Background : ICAM-1 act as one of major adhesion molecules in the atherosclerotic lesion. ICAM-1 expression is mainly regulated at the level of transcription and depend on IFN-γ signal transduction pathway in which the STAT1 transcrption factor is a critical intermediate. IFN-γreceptor not only initiates tyrosine 701 phosphorylation of STAT1 by Jak1 and Jak2, but also phosphorylates serine 727 through the activation of Raf-1/MAP kinases. HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors have anti-atherosclertic effects, beyond normalization of hypercholesterolemia, by directly acting on endothelial cells, macrophages and vascular smooth muscle cells. HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors suppress the synthesis of isoprenoid intermediates such as geranylgeranyl-pyrophosphate or farnesylpyrophosphate. These effects results inhibitors suppress the synthesis of isoprenoid intermediates such as geranylgeranyl-pyrophosphate or farnesylpyrophosphate. These effects results inhibition posttranslational farnesylation and geranyl-geranylation processing of small GTP-binding preoteins and inhibition of normal signaling activities.
Method : We made several 5'-deletion constructs of rat ICAM-1 promoter and analyzed the promoter activities by measuring the luciferase activity after transfection into ECV304 cells and smooth muscle cells. We checked the level of total and phosphorylated STAT1 protein by immunoblot analysis using specific antibodies.
Results : Lovastatin inhibits IFN-γ-induced ICAM-1 gene expression in the ECV304cell. The cells pretreated with PD98059, MEKK inhibitor showed significantly low ICAM-1 RNA induction with IFN-γ stimulatio. IFN-γ induced phosphorylation of tyrosine 701 was not significantly changed by the pretreatment of lovastatin. But lovastatin suppresses IFN-γ-induced phosphorylation of ERK1/ERK2 which are responsible for the seine 727 phosphorylation in STAT1.
Conclusion : We showed that HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, lovastatin, suppresses IFN-γ mediated ICAM-1 gene expression through the inhibition of transcription. HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor suppresses IFN-γ-induced phosphorylation of serine 727 in STAT1 through the modulation of MAP kinases.