Regulation of type 1 iodothyronine deiodinase by LXRα

The iodothyronine deiodinases are selenoenzymes that regulate the activity of thyroid hormone via specific inner- or outer-ring deiodination. In humans, type 1 deiodinase (D1) is highly expressed in the liver, but the mechanism by which its gene expression is regulated remains to be elucidated. Liver X receptor α (LXRα), a transcription factor of the nuclear receptor superfamily, is highly expressed in the liver, where it functions as a sensor for excess intracellular oxysterols. LXRα interacts with other nuclear receptors on promoters of genes that contain a binding core sequence for nuclear receptors. In addition, it is reported that the promoter of the gene encoding human D1 (hDIO1) contains the core sequence for one of nuclear receptors, thyroid hormone receptor (TR). We investigated the involvement of LXRα in the regulation of hDIO1, in the liver. We performed hDIO1 promoter–reporter assays using a synthetic LXR agonist, T0901317, and compared promoter activity between a human liver carcinoma cell line, HepG2, and a clone of human embryonic kidney cells, TSA201. We defined the region between nucleotides −131 and −114, especially nucleotides −126 and −125, of the hDIO1 promoter as critical for basal and LXRα-mediated specific transcriptional activation in HepG2 cells. An increase in hDIO1 expression was observed in LXRα-stimulated cells, but absent in cycloheximide-treated cells, indicating that new protein synthesis is required for LXRα-mediated regulation of hDIO1. On the other hand, electrophoretic mobility shift assays revealed that LXRα and RXRα bound to the hDIO1 promoter. We also demonstrated that LXRα and TRβ compete with each other on this specific region of the promoter. In conclusion, our results indicated that LXRα plays a specific and important role in activation of TH by regulating D1, and that LXRα binds to and regulates the hDIO1 promoter, competing with TRβ on specific sequences within the promoter.