This debris was visible when stained with calcofluor white or propidium iodide and could also be imaged by SEM

e further demonstrated that the exogenously expressed C/EBPc can bind to C/EBP binding site in the IL-6 promoter by EMSA. We next showed that C/EBPc expression significantly suppressed IL-1b-induced IL-6 expression at both mRNA and protein levels. To further determine the ability of C/EBPc to suppress IL-1b-induced IL-6 expression, MLE12 cells were transfected with an IL-6 promoterluciferase construct together with C/EBPc plasmid or control vector in the presence or absence of IL-1b. As shown in Fig. 2E, 21278085” IL-1b stimulation induced IL-6 promoter-driven luciferase expression by over 2.3-fold. However, C/EBPc over-expression led to an over 50% reduction in the luciferase expression. IL-1b induces the activation of both C/EBPb/c and NF-kB in MLE12 cells Previous studies including ours show that C/EBPb and NF-kB synergistically activate the IL-6 expression in various immune cells. Thus, we examined the activation of C/EBPs and NF-kB in IL-1b-treated MLE12 ” cells. As shown in Fig. 4A, IL-1b induces strong NF-kB DNA-binding activity in MLE12 cells. Furthermore, IL-1b treatment also led to the induction of C/EBP DNA-binding activity in the MLE12 cells. The C/EBPb gene can produce several N-terminally truncated isoforms including Liver-enriched activator protein and liverenriched inhibitory protein . LAP is a transcriptional activator in many systems, whereas the function of LIP is controversial. Using supershift assay, we found that C/EBP DNA binding species contained both C/EBPb and C/EBPc, in IL-1b-treated and untreated cells. Moreover, IL-1b induced the DNA-binding activity of C/EBPc. C/EBPb and p65 are indispensable for IL-6 expression in MLE12 cells To determine if interaction of both NF-kB and C/EBPb with the IL-6 promoter region was required for the IL-1b-induced IL-6 expression in MLE12 cells, we transfected MLE12 cells with an IL-6 promoter-luciferase construct or an L-6 promoter-luciferase construct harboring a mutant in either the NF-kB binding site or the C/EBP binding site. As shown in Fig. 5A, a mutation in either the NF-kB binding site or the C/EBP binding site led to a significant decrease of IL-6 promoter-luciferase activity following IL-1b stimulation order 518303-20-3 compared with non-mutated IL-6 promoter-luciferase. We further determined the ability of NF-kB and C/EBPb to synergistically induce the IL-6 promoter-luciferase activity in MLE12 cells. As shown in Fig. 5B, transient transfection with p65 or C/EBPb expression vector caused an over 2-fold increase of luciferase activity when compared with the control vector. Concurrent forced expression of p65 and C/EBPb led to a 3-fold increase of promoter activity compared with p65 or C/EBPb alone. We next examined if the synergistic effect was due to the increased p65 DNA binding activity induced by C/EBPb expression. As shown in Fig. 5C, C/EBPb expression could marginally affect IL-1b-stimulated NF-kB DNA binding activity. Therefore, interaction between p65 and C/ EBPb might be involved in their synergistic activation of IL-6 promoter activity induced by IL-1b. 2 C/EBPc Suppresses IL-6 Production To further determine the role of C/EBPb in IL-1b-induced IL6 production, we transfected MLE12 cells with control siRNA or siRNA specific for C/EBPb. As shown in Fig. 6A, C/EBPb siRNA almost completely abrogated C/EBPb expression compared with control siRNA in MLE12 cells. Furthermore, knockdown of C/ EBPb expression significantly decreased IL-1b-induced IL-6 expression at both mRNA and protein levels. W