Recent studies on the in vivo roles of the sterol regulatory element binding protein (SREBP)
family indicate that SREBP-2 is more specific to cholesterogenic gene expression whereas
SREBP-1 targets lipogenic genes. To define the molecular mechanism involved in this
differential regulation, luciferase-reporter gene assays were performed in HepG2 cells to
compare the transactivities of nuclear SREBP-1a,-1c, and-2 on a battery of SREBP-target
promoters containing sterol regulatory element (SRE), SRE-like, or E-box sequences. The …