The molecular basis of retinoic acid action. Transcriptional regulation of tissue transglutaminase gene expression in macrophages.

Retinoic acid acts as an acute and specific inducer of tissue transglutaminase in mouse resident peritoneal macrophages. We have isolated cDNA clones for this enzyme and used them to demonstrate that this induction is due to the accumulation of tissue transglutaminase mRNA that occurs within minutes of exposure of macrophages to retinoic acid. The retinoic acid-induced increase in tissue transglutaminase mRNA is independent of concurrent protein synthesis and is due to an increased transcription of the tissue transglutaminase gene. Our results demonstrate that retinoic acid is capable of inducing acute transcriptional activation of gene expression in myeloid cells.