Published online before print December 12, 2008
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Department of Medicine, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
1 Correspondence: Department of Medicine, Columbia University, 630 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, USA. E-mail: abp1{at}columbia.edu
TLRs play a fundamental role in innate immune responses. Although Rho GTPases have been implicated in TLR-mediated signaling pathways, the molecules that control their activation in response to TLR engagement are largely unknown. IFN regulatory factor-4-binding protein (IBP; which is encoded by the gene Def6) is a unique type of activator for Rac that plays a crucial role in TCR-mediated signaling and adaptive immune responses. Here, we demonstrate that IBP/Def6 also controls innate immune responses by modulating TLR-induced signaling events. Mice deficient in IBP/Def6 are protected from LPS-induced septic shock. This protection is associated with a decrease in the production of proinflammatory cytokines and is accompanied by diminished activation of MAPKs and NF-
B. Our results thus identify IBP/Def6 as a novel component of the TLR4-induced signaling cascade that controls the production of proinflammatory cytokines.
Key Words: proinflammatory cytokines MAPK NF-
B GEF