Persistent Human γ-Globin Expression in Adult Transgenic Mice Following Selective Deletion of Two Repressor Elements Located 3′ to the Aγ-Globin Gene.

Adult β-globin gene expression is tightly regulated during development and hematopoiesis. The human globin genes undergoing two developmental switches are regulated by a complex interplay between cis-acting elements and stage-specific trans-acting factors. Understanding the molecular basis of globin gene switching is of particular interest as persistent expression of the fetal γ-globin genes in the adult ameliorates the effects of hemoglobinopathies. Natural occurring deletions within the human β-globin gene cluster lead to specific clinical syndromes characterized by increased production of fetal hemoglobin (HbF) in adult life. These clinical syndromes provide an excellent model to reveal and delineate novel cis-acting elements involved in the developmental control of hemoglobin switching. One major hypothesis, which accounts for these distinct phenotypic features, assumes that silencers located within the Aγ to δ gene region, are deleted in both HPFH and δβ-thalassemias leading to the failure of switching.

Previous studies of our laboratory suggested that four elements (Enh, F, O and P) located within the Aγ toδ globin intergenic region, exhibited silencer activity in transient assays (Clin Res 41:308, 1993 and Blood 84:506, 1994) and that the Enh and F elements were capable of down-regulating transcription of the human β-globin locus in an embryonic-specific manner in transgenic mice (Exp Hematol 32:224, 2004). In the present study, we sought to further clarify the in vivo role of the Enh and F elements in the silencing of the fetal Aγ-gene. To this end, we have generated transgenic mice by using cosmid constructs containing the full length human globin LCR linked to the 3.3 kb Aγ gene, lacking both the Enh and F elements. As controls, we used transgenic lines containing the full length LCR linked to the 5.6 kb Aγ-gene construct, which includes both the Enh and F elements, previously shown by us (

Three transgenic lines for the LCR 3.3 kb Aγ-gene construct have been generated. Cosmid integrity and copy numbers (2, 3 and 4 copies respectively) were determined by Southern blot analysis. Expression analysis in adult blood RNA performed by S1 nuclease protection and real-time reverse transcriptase PCR, documented persistence of expression of Aγ-gene in adult life. To further investigate whether the persistence of Aγ-gene expression was not a non-specific effect of the multicopy integrants, we generated a new series of single copy mice by cross-breeding the three transgenic lines with a line expressing the Cre recombinase gene (CAG-Cre). As expected, in the control LCR-5.6 kb Aγ lines, containing the Enh and F elements, the Aγ-globin gene was silenced in all lines tested in the adult stage. In contrast, high levels of Aγ-globin gene expression, similar to those of multicopy integrants were documented in all three generated single copy LCR-3.3 kb Aγ lines, lacking the Enh and F elements.

Thus, this study documents directly for the first time the in vivo role of of these two gene-proximal negative regulatory elements on the silencing of the Aγ-gene in the perinatal period and may permit the design of future therapeutic strategies for their exploitation in therapeutic approaches for thalassemias.