Upregulation of Scavenger Receptor BI by Hepatic Nuclear Factor 4αthrough a Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptorγ-Dependent Mechanism in Liver
Hepatic nuclear factor 4α(HNF4α) modulates the transcriptional activation of numerous metabolic genes in liver. In this study, gene-array analysis revealed that HNF4αoverexpression increased peroxisome proliferator-activated receptorγ(PPARγ) greatly in cultured rat primary hepatocytes. PPAR-response-element-driven reporter gene expression could be elevated by HNF4α. Bioinformatics analysis revealed a high-affinity HNF4αbinding site in the human PPARγ2 promoter andin vitroexperiments showed that this promoter could be transactivated by HNF4α. The presence of HNF4αon the promoter was then confirmed by ChIP assay.In vivo, hepatic overexpression of HNF4αdecreased cholesterol levels both in plasma and liver and several hepatic genes related to cholesterol metabolism, including scavenger receptor BI (SR-BI), were upregulated. The upregulation of SR-BI by HNF4αcould be inhibited by a PPARγantagonistin vitro. In conclusion, HNF4αregulates cholesterol metabolism in rat by modulating the expression of SR-BI in the liver, in which the upregulation of PPARγwas involved.