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Constitutive gene expression of four components of plasminogen activating enzyme system, urinary and tissue-type plasminogen activator (u-PA and t-PA), plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1) and PAI-2 in HT-1080 human fibrosarcoma cells, was modulated by the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone (Dex, 10(-7) M). More than 90% of u-PA, t-PA and PAI-1 antigen was found in conditioned medium, whereas PAI-2 was mainly cell associated. In 48-h culture supernatants (expressed per 10(6) cells) PAI-1 antigen increased from 350 to 3,300 ng and t-PA from 19 to 38 ng. u-PA and PAI-2 in the same samples decreased from 380 to 46 ng and from 3.5 to 1.8 ng, respectively. Northern blot hybridization and nuclear "Run-on" transcription assays demonstrated that the increase of t-PA and PAI-1 and the decrease of u-PA were associated with equivalent changes of gene template activity. Modulation of u-PA, t-PA and PAI-1 gene expression by Dex was completely blocked by the glucocorticoid antagonist RU 38486, suggesting that all effects were mediated through the glucocorticoid receptor. Cycloheximide, an inhibitor of protein biosynthesis induced a rapid transient increase of t-PA, u-PA and PAI-1 mRNA and a sustained increase of PAI-2 mRNA, but blocked the more long term effects of Dex, suggesting that both constitutive and hormonally regulated maintenance of mRNA steady state levels required protein biosynthesis.
Medcalf et al. (Tue,) studied this question.