Purified hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 interacts with a family of hepatocyte-specific promoters.

During development cell types arise through the activation or repression of classes of specific genes. One hypothesis is that this phenomenon is realized by tissue-specific factors playing a role at the transcription level. Recently we have described a liver-specific nuclear protein, hepatocyte nuclear factor 1, that appears to be involved in the transcription of the fibrinogen and alpha 1-antitrypsin genes. In this report we describe the purification of hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 and demonstrate that it interacts with essential promoter regions of many liver-specific genes, including albumin, alpha-fetoprotein, and transthyretin. This finding suggests that hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 could be one factor necessary for establishing the liver phenotype. We also show that this protein binds to the promoter of the surface-antigen gene of the hepatitis B virus, a virus characterized by a high degree of hepatotropism.