Identification of a bile acid response element in the cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase gene CYP7A

The transcriptional activity of the cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase gene CYP7A is repressed by bile acids. Taurine conjugates of chenodeoxycholate and deoxycholate, but not cholate and ursodeoxycholate, inhibited the CYP7A promoter/luciferase reporter activity in transient transfection assays in Hep G2 cells. A region from nucleotide (nt) -74 to -55 was found to mediate bile acid response. However, deletion of this bile acid response element (BARE-I) enhanced reporter activity but did not eliminate the bile acid response. This is due to the presence of another BARE-II located in a conserved region between nt -149 and -128. Deletion or mutations of these sequences reduced promoter activity and abolished bile acid repression. This BARE-II shares an identical AGTTCAAG core sequence with BARE-I. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays of BARE-I and BARE-II probes using Hep G2 nuclear extract and the partially purified binding activity of nt -65/-54 DNA-affinity column revealed that the same or a similar nuclear protein might bind to both BAREs. BARE-II is the major BARE involved in the transcriptional repression of the CYP7A gene by hydrophobic bile acids.