pubmed-article:12446726 | pubmed:abstractText | Terminally differentiated cardiac myocytes adapt to mechanical and neurohumoral stress via morphological changes of individual cells accompanied by reactivation of fetal pattern of gene expression. Endothelin-1, a powerful paracrine mediator of myocyte growth, induces similar changes in cultured cardiac myocytes as those seen in hypertrophied heart in vivo. By using rat B-type natriuretic peptide promoter, we identified a novel ETS binding sequence, on which nuclear protein binding is activated in endothelin-1-treated cultured cardiac myocytes. This sequence binds ETS-like gene-1 transcription factor and mediates endothelin-1-specific activation of transcription, but not responses to increased calcium signaling via l-type calcium channels, angiotensin II treatment, or mechanical stretch of myocytes. Interestingly, endothelin-1 activated signaling converges via p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase-dependent mechanism on ETS binding site, whereas this element inhibits extracellular signal-regulated kinase activated transcription. In conclusion, given the fundamental role of the interaction of mitogen-activated protein kinases and ETS factors in regulation of eukaryotic cell differentiation, growth, and oncogenesis, these results provide the unique evidence of a endothelin-1- and mitogen-activated protein kinase-regulated ETS factor pathway for cardiac myocytes. | lld:pubmed |