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Endocrinological Oncology |
INSERM U-36, Collège de France, Paris, France
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr. Eric Clauser, INSERM U-36, Collège de France, 3 rue dUlm, 75005 Paris, France.
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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Angiotensin II is the principal hormone controlling mineralocorticoid secretion by the adrenal zona glomerulosa. It is also a potent vasoconstrictor and, therefore, plays an important role in sodium and blood pressure homeostasis (2). Its actions are mediated by two types of membrane-bound glycoprotein receptor. In man, the type 1 (AT1) receptor is located predominantly in the vascular system, liver, kidney, and adrenal cortex, and the type 2 (AT2) receptor is located in the uterus, brain, and adrenal medulla of the rat (3). The AT1 receptor mediates most of the known physiological actions of angiotensin II, and the gene has been cloned in human and several other mammalian species (4, 5, 6, 7, 8). The human AT1 receptor gene is located on chromosome 3q22 (9) and is composed of five exons and four introns spanning an area greater than 55 kilobases (kb). The entire open reading frame is contained in exon 5 and is approximately 1.1 kb (10). The receptor is G protein coupled and is predicted to have seven-transmembrane domain (7-TMD) topography (6).
There is accumulating evidence from other 7-TMD, G protein-coupled
receptors to suggest that mutations can result in constitutive
activation, which may be responsible for a number of genetic or
acquired endocrine disorders. For example, in hyperfunctioning thyroid
adenomas, somatic mutations have been found in the nucleotides encoding
the third intracellular loop and a number of other areas of the 7-TMD
structure, which cause activation of adenylyl cyclase when tested
in vitro (11, 12, 13). Similarly, a mutation in the sixth TMD of
the LH receptor is believed to be responsible for male precocious
puberty (14). Mutations in the first intracellular loop and the second
TMD of the murine
MSH receptor result in darkened coat color (15).
In vitro studies, mutating various residues in the third
intracellular loop of the
- and ß-adrenergic receptors, have also
resulted in constitutive activation (16, 17, 18). Therefore, somatic
mutations can result in permanent activation of G protein-coupled
receptors, and in some instances, these can then behave as
protooncogenes.
In the most common form of primary hyperaldosteronism caused by an APA, aldosterone secretion is no longer under normal regulation by angiotensin II. This may be due to a defect in the angiotensin receptor or its signal transduction system. In particular, a somatic mutation in the AT1 receptor gene may constitutively activate the receptor, thereby increasing aldosterone secretion. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed the AT1 receptor gene in APA for the presence of functional mutations using PCR/single strand conformational polymorphism (SSCP) (19) and direct sequence analysis.
| Subjects and Methods |
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The clinical features of the patients (10 women and 7 men) with
primary hyperaldosteronism resulting from an APA are shown in Table 1
. Diagnosis of an APA was based on varying criteria,
including hypertension, hypokalemia of 3.7 mmol/L or less, supine
plasma aldosterone greater than 150 pg/mL, active renin (standing) less
than 15 pg/mL, aldosterone/renin ratios, computed tomographic scanning,
and/or unilateral elevation of adrenal venous aldosterone secretion
(20). After surgery, adenoma tissue was stored in liquid nitrogen until
DNA/ribonucleic acid (RNA) extraction. Three healthy adrenal glands
were obtained from nephrectomy patients.
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Genomic DNA was extracted from the tissue by phenol-chloroform extraction and isopropanol precipitation (21) and resuspended in TE (Tris 10 mM, EDTA 1 mM, pH 7.5), (15 ng/µL). Total RNA was extracted from some tissue using guanidine thiocyanate (22), resuspended in diethylpyrocarbonate-treated water (1 µg/µL), and stored at -70 C. First strand DNA was synthesized from 12 µg total RNA in a final volume of 20 µL, containing 0.2 µg oligo-deoxythymidine primer, 0.5 mmol/L of each deoxy (d)-NTP, 50 mmol/L Tris, 75 mmol/L KCl, 10 mmol/L dithiothreitol, 3 mmol/L MgCl2, BSA (2%), 2 U RNAsin, and 200 U Moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase (Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY). After 1 h at 37 C, the reaction was terminated by heating to 95 C for 2 min.
Identification and detection of AT1 receptor gene polymorphisms
Six overlapping fragments (
300 bp) of AT1
exon 5 were amplified by PCR using the primers shown in Table 2
. PCR was carried out in a total volume of 25 µL,
using 50200 ng DNA, 50 mmol/L KCl, 0.01% gelatin, 5 mmol/L Tris-HCl
(pH 8.3), 1.5 mmol/L MgCl2, 100 µmol/L dNTPs, 1.0 U
Taq polymerase (Boehringer Mannheim, Indianapolis, IN), and
10 pmol of each primer end labeled with [
-32P]dATP
using T4 polynucleotide kinase. Thirty cycles of amplification were
performed, consisting of denaturation for 30 s at 94 C and
annealing/elongation for 20 s at 56 C. An initial denaturation
stage was carried out at 94 C for 4 min.
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Direct sequencing
Sequencing was carried out to characterize the electrophoretic
variants detected by SSCP and verify that some mutations had not gone
undetected using the SSCP conditions described. A fragment of the
AT1 gene was amplified using the primers in Table 2
. The
PCR products were purified by low melting point agarose gel
electrophoresis and eluted using GeneClean (BIO 101, Vista, CA). Cycle
sequencing was carried out on both strands using a Circumvent Kit (New
England Biolabs, Beverly, MA) and an internal primer end labeled with
[
-32P]dATP using T4 polynucleotide kinase.
| Results |
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Finally, analysis of the 3'-flanking region using primer pair 6, revealed an A to C transition at nucleotide 1166, 82 bp from the stop codon (data not shown). This did not alter a potential polyadenylation site or any destabilization signal. Again, this was observed in DNA from tumor, healthy adrenal gland, and blood samples, although none of the samples analyzed in this study was homozygous (CC) for the transition.
| Discussion |
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An APA is the most common cause of primary hyperaldosteronism. In adrenal adenoma tissue, angiotensin binds predominantly to AT1 receptors, although AT2 receptors are present (25). As angiotensin II is the main regulator of aldosterone secretion, it is possible that a somatic mutation in the AT1 receptor gene could result in constitutive activation of the receptor and subsequent increased aldosterone secretion despite the low circulating levels of angiotensin II in this condition.
To test this hypothesis, we extracted DNA or RNA from 17 APAs and 3 healthy adrenal glands and analyzed the coding exon (exon 5) of the AT1 gene by SSCP (19) and direct sequencing. No functional mutations were detected in either the third intracellular loop or any other area of the 7-TMD structure that alter the amino acid composition of the AT1 receptor. However, three silent polymorphisms were identified in both normal and pathological tissue: a T to C transition at nucleotide 573, which forms part of the codon for a leucine residue in the second extracellular loop; an A to G transition at nucleotide 1062, which encodes a proline residue in the intracellular arm proceeding the COOH terminal; and an A to C transition at nucleotide 1166 in the 3'-untranslated region of the gene, which does not appear to alter a potential messenger RNA (mRNA) polyadenylation or destabilization signal. Previous work from our group has shown a significant increase in the A1166 polymorphism in hypertensive subjects, suggesting that although not functional, it may be in linkage disequilibrium with another, as yet unidentified, functional variant (26).
Although there are naturally occurring polymorphisms in exon 5 of the
AT1 receptor gene in APA, there are no functional somatic
mutations that could explain the elevated levels of aldosterone. The
sensitivity of SSCP for analyzing DNA fragments of
150 bp is more
than 95%, and using two different electrophoretic conditions minimizes
the risk of nondetection (27). However, it is possible that we failed
to identify some variants due to these technique limitations. We
attempted to eliminate this possibility in four of the APA samples by
carrying out complete sequence analysis.
Although the results are negative, they do not completely exclude a role for the AT1 receptor in this particular form of primary hyperaldosteronism. It is possible that the regulatory region (promoter) of the gene may be involved. This region has been cloned and characterized by ourselves and others (28, 29) and is situated 2.5 kb upstream of exon 1. Although we did not study AT1 receptor gene expression in our patients, studies by other groups have shown a 2- to 8-fold increase in AT1 mRNA in adenoma tissue and a 1.7- to 2.5-fold increase in AT1 mRNA in leukocytes from patients with APA (30, 31, 32). This increased gene expression can be interpreted in two ways. Firstly, mutations in the promoter region of the gene may abolish the binding of negative regulatory elements or, conversely, enhance binding of positive regulatory elements. However, it is unlikely that an increase in receptor expression alone can increase aldosterone secretion, as circulating levels of angiotensin II remain low, unless this was accompanied by an increase in receptor affinity. Some groups have reported expression of a high affinity angiotensin II-binding site in adrenal adenoma (25), whereas others have reported no change in affinity (33). Ligand binding studies and SSCP analysis of the promoter region are required to detect mutations that could result in overexpression of a high affinity receptor.
The second and most likely explanation for the increased AT1 mRNA in APA is that it is secondary to the increased aldosterone levels. It has been shown that AT1 receptors are regulated at the transcriptional level by angiotensin II itself, dexamethasone, and aldosterone (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39). Therefore, the high levels of aldosterone produced by the adenoma may account for the increase in AT1 receptor expression in the adenoma tissue and leukocytes. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that surgical removal of the tumor decreases AT1 mRNA expression in the leukocytes (32).
In addition to the promoter, other regulatory regions in the AT1 gene may be involved in hyperaldosteronism. The AT1 receptor gene is composed of five exons, and a number of splice variants have been identified (10, 29). The entire coding sequence is contained within exon 5, and the exact function of the other exons remains unclear. Our studies suggest that exons 1 and 2 may inhibit translation due to their hairpin-like secondary structure. In addition, exon 4 contains a start codon that results in an amino-terminal extension of 35 amino acids encoding a longer protein, which may be a novel receptor isoform (29). No mutations were detected in exon 4 in our studies on APA (data not shown). The other three exons remain to be studied.
In summary, our experiments do not provide any evidence that there is an abnormality in the AT1 receptor gene in APA. Although the AT1 receptor gene remains a likely candidate in the pathogenesis of this form of primary hyperaldosteronism, further experiments are required to completely elucidate its role.
| Footnotes |
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2 Current address: Medical Research Council, Blood Pressure Group,
Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Gardiner Institute, Western
Infirmary, Glasgow G11 6NT, Scotland, United Kingdom. ![]()
Received July 16, 1996.
Revised October 7, 1996.
Accepted October 9, 1996.
| References |
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1B-adrenergic
receptor by all amino acid substitutions at a single site. J Biol
Chem. 267:14301433.
2-adrenergic
receptor. J Biol Chem. 268:1648316487.This article has been cited by other articles:
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