Steroid hormones are synthesized in adrenals, gonads, placenta, and in the central and peripheral nervous systems (neurosteroids). Neurosteroidogenesis, like conventional steroidogenesis, begins with the conversion of cholesterol to pregnenolone, catalyzed by mitochondrial P450scc. Transcription of the P450scc gene in the adrenals and gonads requires steroidogenic factor-1 which is not expressed in the nervous system cells that express P450scc. A crucial transcriptional regulatory region of the rat P450scc gene is at -130/-94. We have purified two nuclear proteins (70 and 86 kDa) from rat glial C6 cells that specifically bind to the -130/-94 region of the rat P450scc promoter, and identified them as the DNA-binding subunits of autoimmune antigen Ku. Ku co-localized with P450scc in several regions of the nervous system, but its overexpression in C6 cells did not augment transcription from a -130/-94 Luciferase construct. Members of the Sp family of transcription factors also bind to the same DNA sequence as Ku. Sp4 and Sp2 co-localize with P450scc in the nervous system early in development, while Sp1 and Sp4 co-localize later in development. Sp1 robustly increased transcription from this element in Sp-deficient Drosophila SL2 cells, and Ku synergistically enhanced this Sp1-stimulated transcription. Thus, members of the Sp transcription family play a role in activating P450scc gene transcription in the nervous system, and Ku may further augment this activation.