Control of Renin Synthesis

Studies published recently have considerably enhanced our understanding of the mechanisms controlling renin production. With regard to the control of renin transcription, two enhancer regions have been identified that markedly augment renin synthesis in cell lines. In the absence of this enhancer activity, the basic promoter of the renin gene increases transcription only two- to threefold. The location of one (Jones CA, Sigmund CD, McGowan RA, Kane-Haas CM, and Gross KW. Mol Endocrinol 4: 375-383, 1990) transcription enhancer in the mouse gene is at about -2.7 kb and in humans at roughly -11 kb. A second important region has been identified in a chorionic cell line to be located approximately 5 kb upstream of the transcription start site in humans. Another potentially important regulatory region may lie within approximately 3.9 kb upstream of the -11 kb enhancer, as suggested by several conserved sequences among species in this region. In addition to the control of renin transcription, it seems that renin translation and the stability of renin mRNA are also effectively regulated. This occurs via the 3'-untranslated region, to which several proteins can bind. The binding proteins were identified as hnRNP K and E1, dynamin, nucleolin, MINT homologous protein, and Y-Box 1.