Regulation of the GnT-V promoter by transcription factor Ets-1 in various cancer cell lines

Although the precise role of oligosaccharides in metastasis is presently unknown, numerous studies suggest that the beta 1-6 branching structure of N-linked oligosaccharides plays a role in tumor metastasis, N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferase V (GnT-V), which catalyzes the formation of the beta 1-6 branch, therefore appears to play a crucial role in tumor metastasis, Recently, we demonstrated that the expression of the GnT-V gene is regulated by a transcriptional factor, Ets-l (Kang, R., Saito, H., Ihara, Y., Miyoshi, E., Koyama, N., Sheng, Y., and Taniguchi, N. (1996) J. Biol, Chem. 271, 26706-26712), In this study, we report an investigation of the general requirement for Ets-l in the expression of GnT-V in cancer cell lines. In 16 cancer cell lines, the levels of GnT-V mRNA were closely correlated with ets-l expression (r = 0.97; p < 0.0001), An increase in ets-l levels by transfection of its cDNA led to an enhancement in GnT-V expression in cells that normally expressed low levels of ets-l, In contrast, the transfection of dominant negative ets-l into cells that express high levels of ets-l resulted in a decrease in GnT-V expression, Although Ets-l cooperates with c-Jun in certain gene expressions, this was not the case in the regulation of the GnT-V gene, These results suggest that Ets-l plays a significant role in regulating the expression of GnT-V in a variety of cancers and might be involved in the potential for malignancy via the action of GnT-V.