Bidirectional transcription regulation of glial fibrillary acidic protein by estradiol in vivo and in vitro

Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) expression shows cyclic variation in the rat hypothalamus and hippocampus during the normal estrous cycle. To elucidate the role of transcription in the regulation of GFAP, we examined levels of GFAP intron 1 by in situ hybridization in the hypothalamus and hippocampus of normal, cycling rats. On the afternoon of proestrus, when plasma estradiol levels are highest, GFAP transcription and messenger RNA were both increased in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus and decreased in the outer molecular layer of the dentate gyrus. In the hilus of the hippocampus, neither GFAP transcription nor messenger RNA changed during the estrous cycle. In vitro, astrocytes showed bidirectional responses, such that estradiol treatment increased GFAP transcription in monotypic astrocytic cultures but decreased GFAP transcription in astrocytes cocultured with neurons. The functionality of an estrogen response element in the 5'-upstream region of the GFAP promoter was established by site-directed mutagenesis and binding of human recombinant estrogen receptor in gel shift assays. We conclude that estrogen may act directly upon astrocytes by estrogen receptor binding, and that the direction of the transcriptional response is influenced by astrocyte-neuron interactions.