Possible Role of the Transcription Factor Oct-3/4 in Control of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Expression

During a study on the regulation of interferon-i genes in choriocarcinoma cells, an hCGa-CAT construct was included as an internal control to check transfection efficiencies. Although Oct-3/4 coexpression had little effect on expression from an IFN-ti promoter that carried several potential Oct binding sequences, the hCGa-CAT construct was strongly silenced. This serendipitous discovery led to the data reported in this chapter and two earlier papers (1,2)