Figure 4.

Structure of the human HSD11B1 gene, associated promoters and relevant transcription factor binding sites. Schematic representation of the HSD11B1 gene (not to scale). Exonic sequences are shown as boxes; white boxes encode the open reading frame with red boxes and a blue box indicating the 5′ leader (dependent on the promoter used) and the 3′ untranslated sequence, respectively. Arrows indicate the positions of the 3 promoters. The gene spans 30 kb with a large intron (∼25 kb) between exons 5 and 6. The position of 2 conserved C/EBP binding sites, located between −112 and −160 in the promoter (244, 775), are shown. These sites are bound by C/EBPα and/or C/EBPβ in hepatocytes and adipocytes and are implicated in HSD11B1 regulation by glucocorticoids, cAMP, ceramide, AMPK, and DHEA. See text for details.