Complete cDNA Sequence of a Cytochrome P-450 Inducible by Glucocorticoids in Human Liver

HLp is a human liver cytochrome P-450 that is immunochemically related to the glucocorticoid-inducible liver cytochrome P-450p in the rat and its homologue in the rabbit, P-450 LM3c. To investigate the structure and regulation of HLp, we used a monoclonal antibody that recognizes purified HLp to screen a human liver cDNA library in λ gt11. We isolated and sequenced two overlapping cDNA clones that span the entire 2011 bases of an mRNA that codes for a protein of 504 amino acids. The predicted amino-terminal amino acid sequence of this protein is identical to the first 20 residues determined from purified HLp. HLp mRNA shares more than 70% sequence homology with related proteins from the rat and rabbit but less than 40% homology with other published cytochrome P-450 genes. Moreover, Southern blot analysis of human and rat genomic DNA revealed 50 and 60 kilobases of DNA, respectively, hybridizable to the HLp cDNAs. Blot analysis of human liver RNA from five patients revealed major (2.2 kilobase) and minor (3.0 kilobase) bands that hybridized to HLp cDNAs. The apparent concentration of these hybridizable mRNAs as well as the amounts of immunoreactive HLp protein in microsomes from the same liver were increased in a dose-dependent relationship in three patients who received dexamethasone, a potent glucocorticoid. Furthermore, in samples of RNA and of microsomes isolated from cultures of a human hepatoma cell line (Hep G2) incubated for 120 hr in medium containing dexamethasone, there was a 6-fold induction of the two mRNA species hybridizable to HLp cDNAs and a 3-fold induction of immunoreactive HLp protein as compared to the values for cultures incubated in steroid-free medium. We conclude that HLp is a human representative of a conserved glucocorticoid-inducible cytochrome P-450 gene family whose mechanism of induction involves accumulation of HLp mRNA.