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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1990 Jul;87(13):5183–5187. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.13.5183

Tumor necrosis factor and immune interferon synergistically increase transcription of HLA class I heavy- and light-chain genes in vascular endothelium.

D R Johnson 1, J S Pober 1
PMCID: PMC54286  PMID: 2164225

Abstract

Tumor necrosis factor and immune interferon synergistically increase cell-surface expression of class I major histocompatibility complex molecules in cultured human endothelial cells. We report that tumor necrosis factor and interferon gamma each independently increase mRNA levels and together cause a greater-than-additive (i.e., synergistic) increase in steady-state mRNA levels and transcriptional rates of the class I heavy- and light-chain genes. HLA heavy-chain mRNA is equally stable in cytokine-treated and -untreated endothelial cells. Interferon gamma does not increase tumor necrosis factor receptor number or affinity on human endothelial cells. We conclude that the synergistic increase in class I major histocompatibility complex cell-surface expression results principally from the synergistic increase in transcriptional rates. We propose that this increase is caused by the cooperative binding of independently activated transcription factors to the promoter/enhancer sequences of class I genes.

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Selected References

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