The carbonic anhydrase II gene, whose transcription is enhanced by 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D 3 (1,25-(OH) 2 D 3 ), encodes an important enzyme in bone-resorbing cells derived from the fusion of monocytic progenitors. We analyzed the 1,25-(OH) 2 D 3 -mediated activation of the avian gene by transient transfection assays with promoter/reporter constructs into HD11 chicken macrophages and by DNA mobility shift assays. Deletion and mobility shift analyses indicated that the ؊62/؊29 region confers 1,25-(OH) 2 D 3 responsiveness and forms DNA-protein complexes. The addition of an anti-vitamin D receptor (VDR) antibody inhibited binding to this sequence, whereas anti-retinoid X receptor (RXR) antibody generated a lower mobility complex. Therefore, we concluded that this element binds a VDR⅐RXR heterodimer, but the addition of extra 1,25-(OH) 2 D 3 had no effect on the formation of this complex. Moreover, the use of nuclear extracts from 1,25-(OH) 2 D 3 -treated macrophages led to the formation of an additional high mobility complex also composed of VDR⅐RXR heterodimer. Mutations provided evidence that the 1,25-(OH) 2 D 3 -mediated activation of the carbonic anhydrase II gene is mediated by VDR⅐RXR heterodimers bound to a DR3-type vitamin D response element with sequence AGGGCAtggAGTTCG. This vitamin D response element is also functional in the ROS 17/2.8 osteoblasts.Recent work points to the complexity of the molecular mechanisms involved in the vitamin D 3 signaling pathway. It has been known for some time that in addition to the binding of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) 1 to certain vitamin D response elements (VDREs) as homodimer (3-7), the in vitro binding affinity of the VDR is enhanced by dimerization with accessory factors such as RXRs (8 -11). The response elements for these receptors differ from one another by the number of base pairs (bp) spacing the hexameric repeats according to the so-called 1 to 5 rule (1, 2). Following the 1 to 5 rule, optimal VDREs for VDR⅐RXR heterodimers should be direct repeats of two hexameric core binding sites spaced by three nucleotides (DR3) (1, 3). The high specificity of these DR3-type VDREs was confirmed by identification of some natural and synthetic VDREs (10). The mouse osteopontin VDRE has been shown to bind VDR homodimers with low affinity (3, 6, 12, 13) but VDR⅐RXR heterodimers with high affinity (3, 9, 14, 15). DR3-type elements have also been found in numerous promoters such as the rat osteocalcin gene (16,17), the rat calbindin D-9k (18), the avian integrin 3 subunit gene (19), the rat 24-hydroxylase gene (20 -22), the avian carbonic anhydrase II (CAII) gene (23), and mouse p21 (24). However, the binding sites of the VDREs characterized so far vary considerably in their sequences, preventing definition of a real VDRE consensus sequence (7,(25)(26)(27).The differentiating effects of 1,25-(OH) 2 D 3 have been studied extensively in a large number of in vitro systems using cultures of leukemia cells (28, 29), keratinocytes (30 -32), or bone cells (33-35). Despite this at...