Abstract

The human mucin gene MUC4 is overexpressedin pancreatic cancer and cancer cell lines, while remaining undetectable in thenormal pancreas, indicating its important role in pancreatic cancerpathogenesis. The molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of MUC4 geneexpression are not fully understood. In this report, we used pancreatic cancercell line (Bxpc-3) to explore the potential transcription factors regulatingMUC4 transcriptional activity. Through promoter screening, overexpressing methodsand luciferase reporter studies, we found that transcription factors CREB,Ets-1, Elk-1 and STAT1 can positively regulate MUC4 expression at the promoterand mRNA level. Our findings will be helpful for better understanding thetranscriptional regulation of MUC4 in pancreatic cancer cells and identifyingkey biologically relevant factors that may account for its aberrant expressionin pancreatic cancer.