Tissue-specific and transcriptional activity of uromodulin promoter

Objective To investigate tissue-specific and transcriptional activity of Uromodulin (URO) gene promoter in cell lines. Methods Enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) was used as reporter to construct the expression vector pEGFP-URO and transfected into cell lines of HK-2, ACHN, T24 and HBZY-1.Positive cells were observed as a green fluorescence under excitation light. EGFP activity of the cells was detected by fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry ( FCM ) , and compared to the vector pEGFP-N3.Results The activity of EGFP in HK-2 and ACHN cell lines was stronger than that in the other cell lines (5-10/HP versus 0-1/HP), with positive rate being 13.2% and 11.4% in HK-2 and ACHN cells respectively, but no positive cells were found in the other cell lines. The vector pEGFP-N3 highly expressed EGFP in all cell lines, with positive rate being 23.08% (HK-2) and 19.24% (ACHN) respectively. Conclusion Mouse URO gene promoter can be expressed in a tissue-specific way in human HK-2 and ACHN cells. The URO promoter transcriptional capacity is half of CMV promoter. Key words: Uromodulin;  Promoter;  Tissue-specific