Retinoic acid and cyclic AMP synergistically induce the expression of liver/bone/kidney-type alkaline phosphatase gene in L929 fibroblastic cells.

In L929 mouse fibroblastic cells, liver/bone/kidney type alkaline phosphatase (L/B/K-ALP) enzymic activity is induced by all-trans-retinoic acid at concentrations between 10(-6) and 10(-5) M. At lower concentrations, retinoic acid is incapable of inducing this enzymic activity per se, but increases cyclic AMP (cAMP)-mediated induction. This effect is observed after incubation of the retinoid with dibutyryl cAMP, 8-bromo cAMP or forskolin. The synergism is dependent on the order of addition of retinoic acid and the activator of the cAMP pathway. Contemporaneous addition of the two agents, or addition of cAMP prior to retinoic acid (but not addition of retinoic acid before cAMP), is necessary to produce this synergistic interaction. The synergism results in increased steady-state levels of L/B/K-ALP mRNA and it is the consequence of increased transcriptional activity of the gene. The expression of the mouse L/B/K-ALP gene is regulated by the presence of two leader exons, 1A and 1B, resulting in the synthesis of two alternatively spliced mRNAs that are different only in part of their 5' untranslated region [Studer, Terao, Giannì and Garattini (1991) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 179, 1352-1360]. PCR amplification and nuclear run-on experiments performed using probes specific for each leader exon demonstrate that treatment of these cells with retinoic acid, forskolin or dibutyryl cAMP, and with the combination of the retinoid and one of the cAMP-elevating agents, leads to the accumulation of nascent and mature L/B/K-ALP mRNA containing exon 1B. The synergistic induction of the transcription of the L/B/K-ALP gene is well correlated with quantitative and qualitative changes of retinoic-acid-receptor mRNAs mediated by cAMP.