Analysis of the Human and Mouse Promoter Region of the Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma-Associated CD30 Gene

To investigate the regulation of CD30 at the level of transcription, we have isolated and compared the promoter sequence of human and murine CD30. Analysis of the human and mouse promoter identified a number of potential transcription factor binding sites, including ETS, MZF, AP-1, IK2, CREB, Stat, USF, and Spl. The absence of TATA or CAAT boxes and the identification of one major and three minor transcription initiation sites for CD30 suggest that it is a member of the class of TATA-less promoters that use initiator elements to correctly position the RNA polymerase. Comparison of the murine and human CD30 promoters identified a number of highly conserved regions, including an Spl site 40 bp upstream from the major start site and a downstream promoter element (DPE) that may be involved in directing transcriptional initiation of the CD30 gene. Functional analysis of the human CD30 promoter in transfected Jurkat T cells provided further evidence that these conserved regions are important regulatory elements in the CD30 promoter.