Analysis of the mechanism regulating the stability of rat macrophage inflammatory protein-2 mRNA in RBL-2H3 cells.

Using rat peritoneal neutrophils, the complete nucleotide sequence of rat macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2) mRNA including 5'untranslated region (UTR) and 3'UTR was determined (GenBank Accession number, AB060092). It was found that the MIP-2 mRNA has a 70 bp 5'UTR, a 303 bp coding region and a 728 bp 3'UTR which contains adenylate/uridylate (AU)-rich areas defined as AU-rich elements (AREs). Site-directed mutagenesis studies using the tetracycline-sensitive transactivator protein-expressing rat basophilic leukemia cells (RBL-2H3-TO cells) revealed that MIP-2 mRNA mutants which lack the 3'UTR are more stable than MIP-2-wild-type (wt) mRNA.