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Query: UNIPROT:P01178 (oxytocin)
 15,767 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The mechanisms regulating the expression of the neuropeptide hormone gene oxytocin have not yet been elucidated in detail. The binding of the orphan receptor Ad4BP, the bovine homolog of steroidogenic factor-1 (SF-1), which is correlated with in vivo oxytocin transcription in the luteinizing granulosa cells of the bovine corpus luteum, is not sufficient to explain the transcriptional up-regulation in these cells. Therefore, we started experiments to identify other regions of the oxytocin locus that are involved in gene activation. The study presented here is the very first investigation of DNA methylation and chromatin structure in the distal promoter region of the bovine oxytocin gene. We show that this region is tissue-specifically hypomethylated in bovine granulosa cells. Upon stimulation of the cells with the adenylate cyclase-activator forskolin, a DNase I-hypersensitive site is induced in the distal promoter region. Additionally, we find binding of a monomeric nuclear orphan receptor directly within the region of inducible DNase I sensitivity; this factor is not identical to Ad4BP/SF-1. This study identifies a region in the bovine oxytocin distal promoter where tissue-specific changes in DNA methylation and chromatin structure correlate with high induction of oxytocin gene transcription, and suggests that the binding of transcription factors to this region may be important for the up-regulation of oxytocin gene expression.
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PMID:Alterations in the chromatin structure of the distal promoter region of the bovine oxytocin gene correlate with ovarian expression. 936 35

Secreted peptide hormones and components of the steroidogenic machinery are molecules that are expressed usually in high amounts and in a time- and cell-specific fashion within the cells that give rise to the bovine corpus luteum. They thus serve as useful markers for the events occurring within the nuclei of these cells that result in differentiation and the expression of the specific luteal phenotype. We have studied the bovine genes of three such luteal products: oxytocin, the new relaxin-like factor (RLF), and the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR). The oxytocin gene is expressed in the granulosal cells of the preovulatory follicle and in the large luteal cells of the immediately resulting early corpus luteum. The RLF gene is a major thecal cell product in antral and atretic follicles. It is also transcribed in luteal cells, but only in the mid- to late ovarian cycle and in pregnancy, following a temporal pattern of expression very similar to that of relaxin in pigs. The StAR gene appears to be upregulated only in the mid- to late ovarian cycle, several days after the increase in steroidogenic enzymes associated with luteinization and progesterone production. All three genes make use of the transcription factor SF-1 (Ad4BP) and, although they all respond to LH activation of adenylate cyclase, none utilize CRE-linked systems. Specific transcriptional activation must involve other factors to encode the information for the widely diverse temporal and cellular patterns of gene expression for these three genes.
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PMID:Luteal peptides and their genes as important markers of ovarian differentiation. 1069 56