Regulation of ferredoxin gene in steroidogenic and nonsteroidogenic cells.

Ferredoxin is an electron transport intermediate for all the mitochondrial cytochromes P450. It is especially abundant in steroidogenic organs where it functions in steroid biosynthesis. The regulation of ferredoxin gene expression was studied in both steroidogenic and nonsteroidogenic cell lines. In steroidogenic cell line Y1, the expression of ferredoxin was stimulated by cAMP and repressed slightly by angiotensin II and phorbol ester PMA. These drugs exhibited the same effect on the basal promoter of the ferredoxin gene, which includes one TATA box and an SP1 site. In human adrenocortical cell line H295, the stimulation of the ferredoxin gene by cAMP was blocked by cycloheximide, as observed in bovine adrenocortical cell culture. In nonsteroidogenic cell lines such as HeLa and COS-1, the stimulation of ferredoxin gene expression by cAMP was not observed, although basal expression was strong. Transfection studies showed that the ferredoxin promoter could not be stimulated by cAMP in nonsteroidogenic cells. Therefore the steroidogenic cell-specific regulation and the general expression pattern appears to be a property unique to the ferredoxin gene.