The transcriptional mechanism of regucalcin gene expression was determined using gel mobility shift assay with TTGGC oligonucleotide (II-b) which is located between position -523 and -506 in the promoter region, containing a nuclear factor I (NF1) consensus motif TTGGC(N)(6)CC. The mutation analysis in this motif showed that TTGGC sequence was a specific binding region of the nuclear protein in rat liver and the cloned rat hepatoma cells (H4-II-E). When liver nuclei were incubated with ATP (1 mM), the nuclear protein binding to TTGGC sequence was increased. This binding was also increased in the nuclei of H4-II-E cells cultured with 10% FBS. Such an increase was also seen by culture with vanadate (100 muM), a potent inhibitor of protein tyrosine phosphatase. Serum-enhanced nuclear protein binding to TTGGC sequence was decreased in the presence of TFP (10 muM), staurosporine (100 nM), genistein (10 muM), PD98059 (10 muM), or wortmannin (10 nM), which are inhibitors of various protein kinases. Treatment of a monoclonal phosphotyrosine antibody (4G10) caused an alteration in the TTGGC oligonucleotide-nuclear protein complex formation, indicating that tyrosine phosphorylation of nuclear protein is partly involved in the binding to TTGGC sequence. Moreover, when H4-II-E cells were cultured with FBS (10%), Bay K 8644 (5 muM), PMA (1 muM), or insulin (20 nM), the protein binding to TTGGC sequence in the nuclei was increased, while it was reduced in the cytoplasm, indicating a nuclear localization of the TTGGC sequence-binding protein. This study demonstrates that hepatic nuclear protein can specifically bind to the TTGGC sequence in rat regucalcin gene promoter region, and that this binding is enhanced by intracellular signaling factors which are partly mediated through protein phosphorylation.