USF1 SUPPRESSES EXPRESSION OF FIBRILLAR TYPE I, II, AND III COLLAGEN AND pNP ADAMTS-3 IN OSTEOSARCOMA CELLS
Collagens are the main components of human tissues. Various regulatory factors and cytokines may influence expression levels for collagen-encoding genes, and, therefore, contrubite to some collagen-associated pathologies. In this study, we demonstrate regulatory effects of USF1 on expression of genes encoding fibrillar collagen types I, II, and III. In osteoblastic Saos-2 and MG-63 cells. An ectopic expression of the human USF1 led to a decrease in both mRNA and protein expression levels of the collagen-encoding genes mentioned above. ADAMTS-3 is a proteinase primarily responsible for the amino-terminal cleavage of type I and type II collagen precursors. The <i>ADAMTS-3</i> promoter region contains potential binding sites for USF1. Here we show that an overexpression of USF1 lead to a decrease in ADAMTS-3 mRNA and protein expression levels. In co-transfection studies, USF1 negatively regulated <i>ADAMTS-3</i> promoter activity. Further, in EMSA studies, we showed that USF1 binds to the <i>ADAMTS-3</i> promoter region. In conclusion, it seems that ADAMTS-3 and USF1 contribute to the regulation of collagen encoding genes in osteosarcoma.