Clinical evaluation of enriched transcription factor expression profiles showed significant increased gene expression of
MZF1 in DN in the whole kidney dataset with a fold change of 1.16 (16% increase, P = 0.03; Figure 4).
In addition, 11 significantly enriched transcription factor motifs (PAX5, EGR1, XBP1, SREBP1, OLF1,
MZF1, NFY, NFKAPPAB, MYCMAX, NFE2, RP58) were identified.
When base A was present at this site, no regulatory factors were predicted to bind, but when the base was changed to G
MZF1 binding was predicted.
Watson et al showed that the G allele at +405 possibly resided within a potential myeloid zinc finger protein (
MZF1) binding site and had direct effects on the level of gene transcription and ultimately on LPS-stimulated VEGF protein expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) (17).