ELA2 is regulated by hematopoietic transcription factors, but not repressed by AML1-ETO

A 117 bp fragment of the human ELA2 promoter has been characterized that can act as a minimal promoter for the expression of neutrophil elastase. Chromatin immunoprecipitation and siRNAs revealed that expression of ELA2 is regulated by the acute myeloid human leukemia 1 protein (AML1), C/EBP alpha, PU.1 and c-Myb transcription factors. ELA2 has also been investigated as a possible target of the leukemic fusion protein AML1-ETO resulting from the t(8;21) chromosomal translocation. AML1-ETO, like AML1, binds the ELA2 promoter in the myeloid cell lines Kasumi-1 and U937, but unexpectedly fails to significantly alter expression of ELA2. Although AML1-ETO downregulates the expression of C/EBP alpha, changes in C/EBP alpha expression do not correlate with changes in the expression of ELA2. Our observations indicate that AML1-ETO may not be a constitutive repressor of gene expression in every case in which it can associate with DNA, either on its own or in conjunction with C/EBP alpha. Since neither ETO nor AML1-ETO are typically expressed in hematopoietic progenitors, we hypothesize that it is the interactions between AML1-ETO and regulatory cofactors in disease-state cells that alter gene expression programs during hematopoiesis. These protein-protein interactions may not require simultaneous DNA binding by AML1-ETO for the deleterious effects of the fusion protein to be realized.