Introduction: Retinoic acid X receptor alpha (RXRα) and Connexin 43 (Cx43) both play a crucial role in cardiogenesis. However, little is known about the interplay mechanism between the RXRα and Cx43.
Methods: The activations of retinoic acid response element (RARE) in Cx43 were measured by luciferase transfection assay. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) was performed to prove that RXRα can directly bind to the RARE sequence. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blotting were used to analyze the RXRα and Cx43 mRNA level and protein level in cells.
Results: In this study, we confirmed the negative association of the gene expression between the RXRα and Cx43 in the cell level. Interestingly, a functional RARE was detected in the region from -1,426 to -314 base pairs upstream from the transcriptional start site of Cx43. Moreover, we also prove that RXRα can directly bind to this RARE sequence in vitro and in vivo.
Conclusions: RXRα negatively regulates the transcription and expression by directly binding to the RARE in the promoter of Cx43. The RARE-like sequence harbored in the Cx43 promoter region may serve as a functional RARE in the retinoic acid (RA) signaling pathway.