Characterization of human relaxin gene regulation in the relaxin-expressing human prostate adenocarcinoma cell line LNCaP.FGC

Abstract

Relaxin is a peptide hormone which is produced in human reproductive tissues including the ovary and prostate gland. Little is known of the molecular events regulating relaxin gene transcription. We have studied this question using gene transfer of relaxin promoter/reporter gene constructs into a relaxin-expressing cell line. A number of human cell lines expressed relaxin as detected by reverse transcription-PCR. In one of these lines, the prostate adenocarcinoma cell line LNCaP.FGC, relaxin mRNA was also detected by Northern blot analysis. The DNA sequences of the proximal 5'-flanking regions (~900 nucleotides) of the two human relaxin genes, H1 and H2, were determined. Deletion constructs ..