Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) increases the production of interleukin-12 (IL-12

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) increases the production of interleukin-12 (IL-12) from mouse macrophages via a B site within the IL-12 p40 promoter. In this study, we found that retinoids inhibit this LPS-stimulated production of IL-12 in a dose-dependent manner. The NFB components p50 and p65 bound retinoid X receptor (RXR) in a ligand-independent manner in vitro, and the interaction interfaces involved the p50 residues 1-245, the p65 residues 194 -441, and the N-terminal A/B/C domains of RXR. Activation of macrophages by LPS resulted in markedly enhanced binding activities to the B site, which significantly decreased upon addition of retinoids, as demonstrated by the electrophoretic mobility shift assays. In cotransfections of CV-1 and HeLa cells, RXR also inhibited the NFB transactivation in a ligand-dependent manner, whereas a mutant RXR lacking the AF2 transactivation domain, which serves as ligand-dependent binding sites for transcription integrators SRC-1 and p300, was without any effect. In addition, coexpression of increasing amounts of SRC-1 or p300 relieved the retinoid-mediated inhibition of the NFB transactivation. From these results, we propose that retinoid-mediated suppression of the IL-12 production from LPS-activated macrophages may involve both inhibition of the NFB-DNA interactions and competitive recruitment of transcription integrators between NFB and RXR.

To mount an effective type 1 immune response, type 1 T helper (Th1) cells must produce inflammatory cytokines and simultaneously suppress the expression of antiinflammatory cytokines. How these two processes are coordinately regulated at the molecular level is still unclear. In this paper, we show that the proto-oncogene E26 transformation–specific-1 (Ets-1) is necessary for T-bet to promote interferon-γ production and that Ets-1 is essential for mounting effective Th1 inflammatory responses in vivo. In addition, Ets-1–deficient Th1 cells also produce a very high level of interleukin 10. Thus, Ets-1 plays a crucial and unique role in the reciprocal regulation of inflammatory and antiinflammatory Th responses.

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1 Interleukin-12 (IL-12) plays a central role in the immune system by driving the immune response towards T helper 1 (Th1) type responses which are characterized by high IFN-g and low IL-4 production. In this study we investigated the eects of curcumin, a natural product of plants obtained from Curcuma longa (turmeric), on IL-12 production by mouse splenic macrophages and the subsequent ability of these cells to regulate cytokine production by CD4 + T cells. 2 Pretreatment with curcumin signi®cantly inhibited IL-12 production by macrophages stimulated with either lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or head-killed Listeria monocytogenes (HKL). 3 Curcumin-pretreated macrophages reduced their ability to induce IFN-g and increased the ability to induce IL-4 in Ag-primed CD4 + T cells. Addition of recombinant IL-12 to cultures of curcuminpretreated macrophages and CD4 + T cells restored IFN-g production in CD4 + T cells. 4 The in vivo administration of curcumin resulted in the inhibition of IL-12 production by macrophages stimulated in vitro with either LPS or HKL, leading to the inhibition of Th1 cytokine pro®le (decreased IFN-g and increased IL-4 production) in CD4 + T cells. 5 These ®ndings suggest that curcumin may inhibit Th1 cytokine pro®le in CD4 + T cells by suppressing IL-12 production in macrophages, and points to a possible therapeutic use of curcumin in the Th1-mediated immune diseases.