The ability of neonatal and adult cardiomyocytes to activate the nuclear factor (NF)-B pathway in response to lipopolysaccharide and interleukin-1 challenge has been investigated and compared with that of peritoneal macrophages. The activation of the IB kinase and the phosphorylation and degradation of IB␣ and IB was much lower in adult cardiomyocytes than in the neonatal counterparts and macrophages. This restricted activation of the NF-B pathway resulted in a significant reduction in the time of nuclear activation of NF-B, as deduced by electrophoretic mobility shift assays and in the transcription of target genes, such as IB␣, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and nitric-oxide synthase-2 (NOS-2). Studies on chromatin immunoprecipitation showed binding of NF-B proteins to the regulatory B sites identified in the promoters of the IB␣, COX-2, and NOS-2 genes in macrophages and, to a lower extent, in neonatal cardiomyocytes. The binding to these B sites in adult cardiomyocytes was observed only in the IB␣ promoter and was minimal or absent in the COX-2 and NOS-2 promoters, respectively, suggesting a restricted activation of NF-B-regulated genes in these cells. These data indicate that the function of the NF-B pathway in adult cardiomyocytes is limited in time, which results in the expression of a reduced number of genes and provides a functional explanation for the absence of NOS-2 inducibility in these cells under proinflammatory conditions. (Am J Pathol