In mammalian cells, stress-induced expression of heat shock protein is controlled by heat shock factor 1 (HSF1). However, HSF1 functions as a regulator of additional genes. In this study, we observed that heat treatment effectively induced expression of Fas. Using bioinformatics, a high affinity and functional HSF1-binding element within the -1996/-1985 oligonucleotide of the 5´-flanking region of the Fas gene was found, and was determined by electrophoretic mobility shift assay and chromatin immunoprecipitation assay. Exogenous expression of a constitutively activative HSF1, induced Fas gene transcription and protein synthesis in the ab-sence of heat stress. Moreover, RNA interference-mediated HSF1 gene-silencing attenuated Fas expression in a heat-induced model. Our results sug-gested that HSF1 is an important transcription factor of Fas gene.

Keywords: Apoptosis, Fas, heat shock factor 1 (HSF1)