A novel promoter for vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (flt-1) that confers endothelial-specific gene expression.

The human transmembrane fms-like receptor tyrosine kinase Flt-1 is one of the receptors for vascular endothelial growth factor, a growth factor which induces endothelial proliferation and vascular permeability. Flt-1 is expressed specifically in endothelium and is likely to play a role in tumor angiogenesis and embryonic vascularization. To elucidate the molecular basis for the endothelial specific expression of Flt-1, the promoter region has been isolated and functionally characterized. The promoter region contains a TATA box, a GC-rich region, and putative transcription factor binding elements such as cAMP response element binding protein/activating transcription factor (CREB/ATF) and ets. Adenovirus-mediated transient expression of the flt-1 promoter/luciferase fusion gene in endothelial cells and other cell types demonstrated that a 1-kilobase fragment of the 5'-flanking region of flt-1 is involved in the endothelial-specific expression. A CREB/ATF element was found to be essential for basal transcription of the flt-1 expression. In addition, we also showed that the first intron negatively regulates flt-1 promoter activity. The flt-1 promoter will be useful in functional studies on the regulation of endothelial-specific gene expression and also as a tool in targeting the expression of exogenously introduced genes to the endothelium.