pDRIVE-Flt-1

Flt-1 promoter (Endothelial cells) in pDRIVE expression plasmid

The fms-like tyrosine kinase Flt-1 is one of the receptors for VEGF.

Flt-1 is expressed specifically in endothelial cells and up-regulated in tumor vasculature. The promoter region contains a TATA box, a GC-rich region, nine Ets motifs and one CRE motif, located in a 489 bp fragment upstream of exon-1 [1].

This region is essential for basal and cell-type specific expression of the Flt-1 gene [2].

The Flt-1 promoter has been used to generate high levels of transgene expression targeted to endothelial cells in vitro and in vivo [3].

References:

1. Morishita K. et al., 1995. A novel promoter for vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (flt-1) that confers endothelial-specific gene expression. J Biol Chem. 270(46):27948-53.
2. Wakiya K. et al., 1996. AcAMP response element and an Ets motif are involved in the transcriptional regulation of flt-1 tyrosine kinase (vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1) gene. J Biol Chem. 1996 Nov 29;271(48):30823-8.
3. Nicklin SA. et al., 2001. Analysis of cell-specific promoters for viral gene therapy targeted at the vascular endothelium.
Hypertension. 38(1):65-70.