Isolation of CD4 Genomic Clones and Role of Its 5' Upstream Region in CD4 Expression

Three clones containing mouse CD4 gene were prepared using AKR genomic cosmid library. The role of 6, 500 bp 5' flanking region of the first exon of the AKR CD4 gene in tissue or developmental stage specific expression of CD4 has been studied. The deletion constructs containing various amounts of CD4 5' flanking sequences were prepared, and they were transfected into the cell lines representing different cell types or developmental stages of CD4 expression. Study of the reporter gene expression revealed that at least 1, 700 bp of 5' flanking region did retain promoter activity for CD4 expression. This area did not seem to contain enhancer activity for a full expression of CD4. However, the putative promoter interacted with other tissue specific enhancer sequence and showed the tissue specificity of the enhancer element.