Identification and Characterization of Cyclic AMP Response Element-Binding Protein H Response Element in the Human Apolipoprotein A5 Gene Promoter

The cyclic AMP response element-binding protein H (CREBH) plays important roles in hepatic lipogenesis, fatty acid oxidation, and lipolysis under metabolic stress. Here, we report CREBH as a novel regulator of human APOA5. Knockdown of endogenous CREBH expression via small interfering RNA resulted in the downregulation of human APOA5 mRNA expression in human hepatoma cells, HepG2. Sequence analysis suggested that putative CREBH response element (CREBHRE) is located in the human APOA5 promoter region and is highly conserved in both human and rodent. To clarify whether the human APOA5 promoter is regulated by CREBH, we analyzed the human APOA5 promoter region using a transient transfection assay and determined that transfection of CREBH induced human APOA5 promoter activity. Moreover, it was shown that CREBH directly regulated human APOA5 gene expression by binding to a unique CREBHRE located in the proximal human APOA5 promoter region, using 5′-deletion and mutagenesis of human APOA5 promoter analysis and chromatin immunoprecipitation assay. Taken together, our results demonstrated that human APOA5 is directly regulated by CREBH via CREBHRE and provided a new insight into the role of this liver-specific bZIP transcription factor in lipoprotein metabolism and triglyceride homeostasis.