Hypertrophic stimuli augment expression of cMG1/ERF-1, a putative zinc-finger motif transcription factor, in rat cardiomyocytes.

We isolated the gene for cMG1/ERF-1, a known putative zinc-finger transcription factor, by differential display of mRNA extracted from cardiomyocytes with and without leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) stimulation. LIF induced cMG1/ERF-1 mRNA at 15 min, and levels peaked at 10-fold initial levels at 30 min. cMG1/ERF-1 expression was inhibited by AG490 (JAK2 inhibitor) and genistein, but was unaffected by PD98059 or wortmannin. Phenylephrine, angiotensin II and endothelin-1 also induced cMG1/ERF-1 expression. Mechanical stretch in vitro and acute pressure overload in vivo increased cMG1/ERF-1 expression. To our knowledge, this is the first report showing that the cMG1/ERF-1 gene can be induced by various hypertrophic stimuli, and that Janus kinase 2 is involved in this process.