(Journal of Leukocyte Biology. 2001;69:651-658.)
© 2001
by Society for Leukocyte Biology
Involvement of PKA, PKC, and Ca2+ in LPS-activated expression of the chicken lysozyme gene
Petra Regenhard*,
Ralph Goethe*,
and
Loc Phi-van*
* Institut für Tierzucht und Tierverhalten Celle (FAL), Celle, Germany; and
Institut für Mikrobiologie und Tierseuchen, Hannover, Germany
Correspondence: Dr. Loc Phi-van, Institut für Tierzucht und Tierverhalten, Dörnbergstr. 25-27, 29223 Celle, Germany. E-mail: loc.phi-van{at}fal.de

ABSTRACT
The lysozyme gene is activated in myelomonocytic HD11 cells
in response
to LPS. In this study, we described the involvement
of LPS-activated
signal transduction pathways in activation
of the lysozyme gene.
Pre-treatment of HD11 cells with H-89,
H-7, TMB-8, or KN-93 resulted in
inhibition of the LPS-enhanced
lysozyme expression, suggesting that
PKA, PKC, and Ca
2+-dependent
protein kinases
participate in the LPS activation. CaMKII seems
to be required for the
processing of lysozyme transcripts. TPA
and calcium ionophore A23187,
when separately added to HD11
cells, stimulated the lysozyme expression
effectively, and forskolin
was ineffective. It is interesting that
simultaneous treatment
of cells with forskolin and calcium ionophore
A23187 resulted
in a potentiated increase in lysozyme mRNA expression,
indicating
a synergistic cooperation of PKA and
Ca
2+. This synergistic
effect of PKA and
Ca
2+ was observed on the expression of a stably
integrated
CAT construct, controlled by the lysozyme promoter and the
-6.1-kb
enhancer containing binding sites for C/EBP and NF-

B/Rel.
Therefore,
we discussed the role of C/EBPß(NF-M), CREB, and
NF-

B/Rel
as possible targets for phosphorylation mediated by PKA,
PKC,
and Ca
2+.
Key Words: myelomonocytes inflammatory response C/EBPß(NF-M) CREB NF-
B/Rel

INTRODUCTION
Lysozyme is one of the antibacterial proteins synthesized mainly
in
the chicken oviduct and in macrophages. In tubular gland cells
of
the oviduct, the expression of the lysozyme gene is regulated
transcriptionally
by steroid hormones [
1
,
2
]. During the differentiation of
macrophages, the
lysozyme gene is expressed at a low level in
precursors and at a high
level in mature macrophages and thus
is a later marker gene for the
myeloid lineage [
3
4
5
]. Inflammatory
agents such as
lipopolysaccharide (LPS) activate immunological
and inflammatory
responses, particularly in cells of immunological
systems including B
and T lymphocytes and macrophages [
6
].
Several studies
demonstrated that treatment with LPS activated
protein phosphorylation
mediated by protein kinase C (PKC) [
7
,
8
],
protein kinase A (PKA) [
9
10
11
], as well as protein
tyrosine
kinases (PTKs) [
8
,
12
,
13
]. Furthermore, LPS initiates hydrolysis
of
phosphatidylinositol-4,5-biphosphate (PIP
2) to generate
inositol
triphosphate (IP
3), which in turn leads to large
elevations
in intracellular levels of Ca
2+
[
14
,
15
]. This second messenger
can
modulate the expression of target genes by activating
Ca
2+-dependent
kinases, the most
well-characterized of which are the
Ca
2+-calmodulin-dependent
protein kinase II
(CaMKII) isoenzymes, which are expressed in
most tissues
[
16
17
18
]. It has been shown that CCAAT/enhancer-binding
protein
(C/EBP)ß, a member of the bZip family of transcription
factors,
was phosphorylated by activation of CaMKII in response to
increased
intracellular calcium concentrations, and this
phosphorylation
at serine
276 within the leucine zipper of
C/EBPß appeared
to confer calcium-regulated transcriptional
activation of promoters
containing binding sites for C/EPBß
[
19
].
In macrophages, expression of several genes can be activated upon
stimulation by LPS. We have shown previously that the lysozyme
expression was elevated strongly in LPS-activated chicken
myelomonocytic HD11 cells. This LPS activation was regulated at
transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels [20
].
The LPS-activated transcription was mediated by specific interaction of
the myeloid-specific transcription factor C/EBPß(NF-M) with two
C/EBPß-binding sites of the far-upstream -6.1-kb lysozyme enhancer
[21
, 22
]. Furthermore, treatment of HD11
cells with LPS increased the level of nuclear factor
B
(NF-
B)p65/Rel-containing protein complexes binding to the
NF-
B-binding site within the lysozyme promoter [4
].
To determine the transduction pathways that mediate the LPS-activated
lysozyme expression in this study, we investigated the effects of
activators and inhibitors of protein kinases on the lysozyme expression
in myelomonocytic HD11 cells. We found that pre-treatment of cells with
H-7, H-89, TMB-8, and KN-93, but not with herbimycin A and Gö
6976, inhibited the LPS-activated lysozyme expression effectively,
indicating involvement of PKC, PKA, Ca2+, and CaMKII in the
LPS activation. Furthermore, in parallel with its stimulatory effect on
the transcription, CaMKII seems to be required to process lysozyme
transcripts. Treatment of cells with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol
13-acetate (TPA) or calcium ionophore A23187 increased the lysozyme
expression. It is interesting that forskolin and calcium ionophore
A23187, when added simultaneously, had a synergistic effect on the
lysozyme expression, suggesting a synergism of transduction pathways
mediated by PKA and Ca2+ involved in the LPS-triggered
lysozyme expression. In this context, the role of C/EBPß(NF-M), CREB,
and NF-
B/Rel as targets for protein kinases mediated by PKA, PKC,
CaMKII, and Ca2+ is discussed.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Cell culture
Myelomonocytic HD11 cells [
23
] were grown in
Iscoves
modified Dulbeccos medium (IMDM), supplemented with 8%
fetal
calf serum (FCS), 2% chicken serum, 100 U/ml penicillin, 100
µg/ml
streptomycin at 37°C, and 5% CO
2. For
stimulation, cells
were maintained in IMDM with 0.5% FCS for 48 h
and then treated
with 5 µM calcium ionophore A23187 (Sigma,
Deisenhofen,
Germany), 25 µM forskolin (ICN, Eschwege, Germany), 60
ng/ml
TPA (Sigma), or 5 µg/ml LPS from
Salmonella
typhimurium (Sigma) for the indicated time periods. To inhibit
protein phosphorylation
by PKC, PKA, PTK, CaMKII, and
Ca
2+-dependent PKC and to inhibit
release of
Ca
2+ from intracellular stores, cells were incubated
first
with H-7 and H-89 (both at ICN); herbimycin A (Sigma);
and KN-93,
Gö 6976, and TMB-8 (all at Calbiochem, Schwalbach,
Germany) and
then stimulated with LPS.
RNA preparation
For preparation of poly(A)+ RNA, 4 x
107 cells washed twice in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS)
were lysed in 15 ml SSTE [0.1 M NaCl, 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 10 mM
ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA), and 0.5% sodium dodecyl sulfate
(SDS)] and homogenized with a Janke & Kunkel Ultra-Turrax (Staufen,
Germany). After a 30-min digestion with 300 µg/ml proteinase K at
37°C, the lysate was incubated with 100 mg oligo(dT) cellulose in the
presence of 0.5 M NaCl at room temperature overnight. The oligo(dT)
cellulose-bound poly(A)+ RNA was collected by
centrifugation at 1600 rpm for 4 min and washed with four changes of 10
ml of a solution containing 10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 0.3 M NaCl, 5 mM
EDTA, and 0.1% SDS, and finally, poly(A)+ RNA was eluted
with deionized water.
Northern analysis
Northern analysis was performed by a standard method
[24
]. Briefly, 4 µg poly(A)+ RNA denatured
by 0.5 M glyoxal and 27% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) were fractionated
electrophoretically on 1.4% agarose gels containing 10 mM
NaH2PO4 (pH 6.9) at 75 V for 23 h,
capillary-transferred onto Hybond-N+ nylon membranes (Amersham
Pharmacia Biotech, Braunschweig, Germany) [25
], and
immobilized by backing the blot at 80°C for 2 h. After a 4-h
pre-hybridization in a solution containing 0.5 M
Na2HPO4 (pH 7.2), 1 mM EDTA, and 7% SDS at
65°C, blots were hybridized to nick-translated plasmid DNA
(3x106 cpm/ml) containing chicken lysozyme cDNA
[26
], lysozyme intron 1 and 2 [20
], NF-M
cDNA (22), or glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) cDNA
[27
] with 0.1 mg/ml yeast tRNA in the same solution at
65°C overnight. Hybridized blots were washed at 65°C once in 100 ml
of 40 mM Na2HPO4 (pH 7.2), 1 mM EDTA, and 5%
SDS and three times in 60 ml of 40 mM Na2HPO4
(pH 7.2), 1 mM EDTA, and 1% SDS for 15 min, followed by a short wash
in 100 ml of 4 x standard saline citrate (SSC; 1xSSC: 150 mM
NaCl and 15 mM sodium citrate, pH 7.0) at room temperature. After
washing, blots were exposed to X-ray films with intensifying screens at
-80°C. To quantify hybridization signals, autoradiograms were
scanned by a scanning densitometer from Bio-Rad (München,
Germany). Lysozyme RNA levels were normalized with respect to GAPDH on
the same blots.
Stable transfection and chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT)
assay
HD11 cells were transfected with 20 µg pcEPCAT5
[21
] and 2 µg ptkNeo [28
] by the
calcium phosphate co-precipitation method described previously
[28
]. The plasmid pcEPCAT5 carries the CAT reporter gene
under transcriptional control by the chicken lysozyme promoter and the
-6.1-kb lysozyme enhancer. The plasmid ptkNeo contains the Tn5
neomycin-resistance gene driven by the thymidine kinase promoter from
Herpes simplex virus. Transfected cells were fed with fresh IMDM medium
and incubated at 37°C for 24 h before 500 µg/ml G418 (Life
Technologies, Karlsruhe, Germany) was added to select cells that had
integrated DNA stably. G418-resistant clones were isolated 23 weeks
later and grown to a density of 1 x 107 cells per
8.5-cm plate for stimulation with LPS, calcium ionophore A23187, and
forskolin, as described above. After stimulation (24 h), cells washed
twice in PBS were scraped by a rubber policeman in 1 ml TEN (40 mM
Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 1 mM EDTA, and 150 mM NaCl) and pelleted by
centrifugation in an Eppendorf centrifuge for 10 s. The pellet was
suspended in 150 µL of 0.25 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), and the suspension
was sonified and cleared by centrifugation at 10,000 g for
10 min. Protein concentrations of cell extracts were determined by
using a detergent- compatible protein assay kit from Bio-Rad, according
to the instructions of the manufacturer. CAT assays were performed with
1050 µg protein of each cell extract in the presence of 0.5 mM
acetyl coenzyme A and 0.5 µCi [14C]chloramphenicol at
60 mCi/mmol (Amersham Buchler, Braunschweig, Germany), as described
previously [28
].
Preparation of nuclear extracts and electrophoretic mobility shift
assay (EMSA)
Nuclear extracts from HD11 cells were prepared as described by
Schreiber et al. [29
]. EMSA was performed
with radiolabeled oligonucleotides containing the
C/EBPß(NF-M)-binding site TTTGGAAAT of the -6.1-kb lysozyme
enhancer [21] or the NF-
B site of the lysozyme promoter
[4], using 5 µg protein of nuclear extracts as described
previously [22
].

RESULTS
PKA and PKC, but not PTK, are essential for the LPS-activated
lysozyme expression
To investigate transduction pathways that mediate the
LPS-activated
expression of the lysozyme gene, inhibitors of protein
kinases
were used. HD11 cells were incubated with LPS following
treatment
with H-7, H-89, or herbimycin A, and the levels of lysozyme
RNA
were determined by Northern analysis using the full-length lysozyme
cDNA
as probe. We have shown previously that LPS induced an
accumulation
of the lysozyme pre-mRNAs of 3.9, 2.1, and 0.8 kb
[
20
].
Figure 1A
1B
1C
shows the effects of these inhibitors on the lysozyme
expression
in LPS-activated cells. H-7 and H-89, inhibitors of PKC and
PKA,
respectively, were sufficient to inhibit the LPS-induced lysozyme
expression
completely at a concentration of 25 µM. This result
indicates
that PKC and PKA are essential for the LPS stimulation in
HD11
cells. In contrast, herbimycin A, an inhibitor of PTK, failed
to
inhibit the LPS-activated lysozyme expression. Instead, treatment
of
cells with herbimycin A led to an increase in lysozyme RNA
levels
(2.1-fold).
CaMKII is required for the LPS-activated lysozyme transcription and
splicing of lysozyme transcripts
Ca
2+ can be mobilized from the endoplasmic reticulum
by treatment
of macrophages with LPS leading to increases in
intracellular
Ca
2+ levels [
14
,
15
]. To confirm the role of Ca
2+ in the LPS
activation
of the lysozyme expression, we used TMB-8 to block the
release
of Ca
2+ from intracellular stores and thus to
prevent Ca
2+ increase
in LPS-activated cells. Northern blot
analysis on lysozyme mRNA
from cells pre-treated with 25, 50, 100, and
200 µM TMB-8
and subsequently stimulated with LPS revealed that TMB-8
prevented
the LPS-activated expression in a dose-dependent manner. The
LPS
activation was inhibited almost completely at the TMB-8
concentration
of 200 µM (
Fig. 2A
).
Next, we examined the involvement of Ca
2+-dependent protein
kinases
in the LPS-activated lysozyme expression using a
Ca
2+-dependent
PKC inhibitor (Gö 6976) and a CaMKII
inhibitor (KN-93).
Densitometric scanning of the hybridization signals
revealed
that Gö 6976 had no effect on the lysozyme expression,
when
the lysozyme RNA levels were normalized for GAPDH
(Fig. 2B)
.
In
contrast, when cells were pre-treated with 50 µM KN-93,
followed by
stimulation with LPS, the increased lysozyme expression
was inhibited
by

50%
(Fig. 2C)
. It is interesting that
Figure 2C shows further
that in the presence of 50 µM KN-93,
8%, 87%, and 5% of lysozyme
transcripts at 3.9, 2.1, and 0.8
kb, respectively, were present after
1 h of treatment with LPS,
in contrast to 1%, 43%, and 56% of
those obtained in LPS-stimulated
cells without KN-93. Thus, the
lysozyme transcripts in cells
treated with KN-93 seem to be spliced
more slowly than those
in untreated cells. Therefore, the splicing of
lysozyme transcripts
in cells treated with and without KN-93 was
pursued after inhibiting
transcription by treatment with actinomycin D,
an inhibitor
of RNA polymerases. Before inhibition of transcription
with
actinomycin D, cells were pre-treated with or without KN-93
and
then stimulated with LPS for 1 h.
Figure 3
shows that
after 30-, 60-, and 90-min inhibition of transcription
by actinomycin
D, 72%, 24%, and 22% of the lysozyme transcript at
2.1 kb still
remained in cells treated with KN-93, compared with 6%,
0%,
and 0% of that in untreated cells, suggesting an involvement
of
CaMKII in the processing of the lysozyme transcripts, particularly
of
the 2.1-kb transcript.
To determine whether CaMKII is also involved in the LPS-activated
transcription
of the lysozyme gene, the effect of KN-93 on the
transcription
of a CAT gene driven by the lysozyme promoter
and the -6.1-kb
lysozyme enhancer (pcEPCAT5) was tested. Using a
run-on transcription
assay, we have shown previously that expression of
this CAT
construct, integrated stably in HD11 cells, was activated
transcriptionally
by LPS [
20
]. A G418-resistant HD11
cell line (pc5) containing
the CAT construct was pre-treated with KN-93
and then activated
with LPS. After 24 h of incubation, CAT
activities were determined.
As shown in
Figure 4
, KN-93 was sufficient to suppress the
LPS activation of CAT
activity. Taken together, these data are
consistent with the suggestion
that CaMKII is required not only
for the increased transcription of the
lysozyme gene but also
for the splicing/processing of its transcripts
in LPS-activated
cells.
Calcium ionophore A23187 and forskolin stimulate the lysozyme
expression in myelomonocytic HD11 cells synergistically
To examine the lysozyme expression mediated by PKA, PKC, and
Ca
2+-dependent
protein kinases, Northern analysis was
performed with poly(A)
+ RNA from HD11 cells treated with
forskolin, TPA, and calcium
ionophore A23187 using the full-length
lysozyme cDNA as probe.
As shown in
Figure 5A
, treatment of cells with forskolin induced
the lysozyme
expression weakly even after 12 h, and treatment
with calcium
ionophore A23187 resulted in moderate induction.
It is interesting that
forskolin and calcium ionophore A23187,
when added simultaneously,
induced significant accumulation
of lysozyme RNA synergistically (
Fig. 5A
, lanes 4, 7, and 10).
In a typical time-course experiment, at time
zero, the levels
of lysozyme RNA were quite low, and after the addition
of forskolin
and calcium ionophore, lysozyme RNA levels in HD11 cells
remained
unchanged for the first 4 h but were increased
significantly
following this lag phase and elevated continuously until
at
least 12 h of incubation
(Fig. 5B)
. In contrast to forskolin,
TPA,
a PKC activator, when separately added to HD11 cells, was able
to
stimulate the lysozyme expression significantly. When TPA
and calcium
ionophore A23187 were added simultaneously, additional
stimulation of
the expression was observed (
Fig. 5C
, lanes
3, 5, and 7). In contrast,
no further stimulation was seen with
TPA and forskolin (
Fig. 5C
, lanes
3, 9, and 11).
Changes in processing of lysozyme transcripts in forskolin- and
calcium ionophore A23187-treated HD11 cells
Forskolin and calcium ionophore A23187, like LPS, when added
to
HD11 cells, induced an accumulation of three larger lysozyme
RNA
species of 3.9, 2.1, and 0.8 kb. To analyze the processing
pathway of
lysozyme pre-mRNA in HD11 cells treated with forskolin
and calcium
ionophore A23187, lysozyme-specific intron sequences
1 and 2 were used
as probes to be labeled and hybridized to
poly(A)
+ RNA on
Northern blots. As shown in
Figure 6
, RNA
species at 3.9 and 2.1 kb were detected by intron 1, whereas
the
largest at 3.9 kb was detected by intron 2. Thus, these results
are
similar to our previous results obtained with RNA from LPS-activated
HD11
cells [
20
]. Furthermore, the 0.8-kb RNA species was
spliced
completely but still larger than the mature lysozyme mRNA in
control
HD11 cells. Analysis of poly(A) tails by RNase H
indicates an
increase in poly(A) tail length in HD11 cells
treated with forskolin
and calcium ionophore A23187 (unpublished
results).
Calcium ionophore A23187 and forskolin activate synergistically
expression of a lysozyme-CAT construct integrated stably in HD11 cells
To determine whether forskolin and calcium ionophore A23187
activate
the lysozyme expression at a transcriptional level, we
measured
the transcriptional and regulatory activity of the lysozyme
promoter
and the -6.1-kb enhancer in stably transfected HD11 cells
treated
with calcium ionophore A23187 and forskolin. G418-resistant
cell
lines containing a CAT gene controlled by these elements were
established
by co-transfection of HD11 cells with pcEPCAT5 (see above)
and
ptkNeo, a plasmid containing the selectable marker gene for
neomycin
phosphotransferase. Five of these lines were treated with
forskolin
and calcium ionophore A23187, and the effect of these drugs
on
the transcription of the CAT gene was investigated by determining
CAT
activities.
Figure 7
shows five individual, G418-resistant
cell lines expressing the
integrated CAT gene. As expected,
forskolin or calcium ionophore
A23187, when separately added
to these cells, induced the CAT activity
weakly. In contrast,
in four of five clones, simultaneous treatment of
cells with
forskolin and calcium ionophore A23187 resulted in a
synergistic
activation of CAT activity. Thus, this result suggests that
the
synergistic lysozyme activation by calcium ionophore A23187
and
forskolin occurs at a transcriptional level.
Forskolin and calcium ionophore A23187 induce binding activity of
C/EBPß(NF-M) and NF-
B
The lysozyme promoter and the -6.1-kb lysozyme enhancer contain
a
NF-

B site and two C/EBPß-binding sites (D and E),
respectively.
These sites have been shown to mediate the LPS-activated
lysozyme
expression in HD11 cells [
4
,
21
]. Our data
suggest
that the transduction pathways mediated by PKA and
Ca
2+ contribute,
at least in part, to the LPS activation of
the lysozyme gene.
To determine whether binding of C/EBPß(NF-M) to
the
-6.1-kb enhancer and NF-

B to the promoter may be regulated by
these
pathways, EMSA was performed with element D of the -6.1-kb
lysozyme
enhancer and NF-

B site of the promoter using nuclear
extracts
from HD11 cells treated with forskolin and calcium ionophore
A23187
for 2 and 12 h. The C/EBPß(NF-M) binding to element
D was
stimulated significantly by forskolin (threefold and 8.2-fold)
and
calcium ionophore A23187 (2.3- and 5.6-fold) after 2 and
12 h of
incubation, respectively (
Fig. 8A
).
Figure 8B
shows
that binding activity of NF-

B was not
effected by forskolin
but moderately induced by calcium ionophore
A23187 after a 12-h
incubation (

2.6-fold). Treatment of cells with
both reagents,
however, did not lead to further stimulation of the
C/EBPß(NF-M)
binding to element D (4.3- and 7.1-fold after 2 and
12 h, respectively)
or NF-

B-binding activity (

2.8-fold after
12 h of stimulation).

DISCUSSION
Previously, we have shown that the lysozyme expression in chicken
myelomonocytic
HD11 cells activated by LPS is regulated by a multi-step
process
at transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. This
activation
occurs very early and extends over 10 h after addition
of LPS
[
20
]. In this study, our work focused on the role
of protein
kinases and Ca
2+ in the LPS response of the
lysozyme expression.
The data obtained from this study using various
inhibitors of
protein kinases and a calcium-release antagonist (TMB-8)
indicate
that PKA, PKC, and Ca
2+ release from intracellular
stores are
involved in the LPS activation of the lysozyme expression.
Although
forskolin and calcium ionophore A23187, when added to the
cells
separately, induced the lysozyme expression weakly to moderately,
inhibition
of PKA by H-89 or blocking Ca
2+ release by
TMB-8, however, prevented
the increased lysozyme expression by LPS
completely. It is interesting
that simultaneous treatment of cells with
forskolin and calcium
ionophore A23187 resulted in a potentiated
induction of the
lysozyme expression, thus confirming a synergistic
cooperation
between PKA and Ca
2+ in the lysozyme gene
activation. Because
the synergistic activation by PKA and
Ca
2+ was observed after
2 h of treatment with
forskolin and calcium ionophore A23187,
PKA and Ca
2+ seem
to be required mainly for later activation
by LPS. Our results also
confirmed the involvement of PKC in
the LPS activation of the lysozyme
expression in HD11 cells.
Activation of the lysozyme expression by TPA
occurs late also.
Thus, like PKA and Ca
2+, PKC seems to be
important for the later
LPS activation. However, because the
LPS-activated lysozyme
expression is abolished completely by
pre-treatment with H-7,
H-89, and TMB-8, we believe that other
essential factors in
addition to PKA, PKC, and Ca
2+ should
be required for early
stages of LPS activation. Taken together, our
results demonstrate
that PKA, PKC, and Ca
2+ alone are
necessary but not sufficient
to mediate full induction of lysozyme
expression by LPS, although
their activators forskolin, TPA, and
calcium ionophore A23187
are capable of stimulating the lysozyme
expression in HD11 cells
to some extent. It is surprising that protein
tyrosine phosphorylation
seems to be unnecessary for the LPS
activation, because herbimycin
A failed to inhibit the LPS-activated
lysozyme expression, although
PTK p53/56lyn is shown to be associated
to the LPS receptor
CD14, leading to activation of cytokine gene
expression [
30
].
In contrast, it stimulated the lysozyme
expression. Thus, our
result seems to be consistent with the
observation that herbimycin
A is able to stimulate gene expression,
e.g., expression of
the 70-kD heat-stress protein [
31
]
and the serotonin-reporter
gene [
32
], and, furthermore,
it can increase cytoplasmic calcium
in rat osteoclasts
[
33
].
Several transcription factors as target proteins for PKA, PKC, and
Ca2+-dependent protein kinases are shown to be involved in
the LPS activation, one of which should be the myeloid-specific
transcription factor C/EBPß(NF-M) of the leucine zipper family. In
HD11 cells, C/EBPß(NF-M), by interacting with the -6.1-kb enhancer,
mediates the LPS-activated expression of the lysozyme gene
[21
, 22
]. C/EBPß has been shown to be
regulated by phosphorylation mediated by PKA [34
], PKC
[35
], CaMKII [19
], and mitogen-activated
protein (MAP) kinases [36
]. Metz and Ziff
[34
] have demonstrated that C/EBPß, located mainly in
the cytoplasm, requires phosphorylation to translocate to the nucleus
of PC12 cells following forskolin treatment. Our results show that
forskolin is capable of increasing the C/EBPß(NF-M)-binding activity
to the -6.1-kb enhancer, although inhibition of PKA by H-89 has no
effect on the C/EBPß(NF-M) mRNA expression (unpublished results).
Because the C/EBPß(NF-M)-binding activity to the -6.1-kb enhancer
has shown to be independent of phosphorylation [21
], it
is possible that this increase in binding activity may be a result of a
translocation of C/EBPß(NF-M) from the cytoplasm into the nucleus
that may be induced by PKA following treatment with forskolin. Several
studies have demonstrated that the transactivation potential of
C/EBPß for activation of gene expression can be enhanced by
phosphorylation within the leucine zipper by
calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinases [19
], MAP
kinases [36
], and PKC-dependent protein kinases
[35
]. It is interesting that C/EBPß(NF-M) has been
shown to be a repressed transcription factor with a concealed
transactivation potential that can be de-repressed by phosphorylation
[37
]. Treatment of HD11 cells with LPS increases the
level of C/EBPß(NF-M) protein complex to the -6.1-kb lysozyme
enhancer, resulting in activation of the lysozyme expression. This
increase was shown to be a result of enhanced transcription of the
C/EBPß(NF-M) gene [22
]. Our results indicate the
requirement of PKC for the lysozyme mRNA expression. Also, PKC is shown
to be essential for the C/EBPß(NF-M) mRNA expression (unpublished
results). Therefore, these data suggest that de novo
synthesis of C/EBPß(NF-M) mediates the PKC pathway required for the
activation of the lysozyme expression.
It has been demonstrated that Ca2+ interacts
synergistically with PKA to induce c-fos transcription via a convergent
mechanism involving phosphorylation of the cAMP response
element-binding protein (CREB) [38
]. CREB, a
Ca2+-regulated transcription factor, is a substrate for PKA
[39
] as well as for CaMKI and II [40
].
Phosphorylation of serine133 stimulates the ability of CREB
to activate gene expression [39
, 40
].
Furthermore, phosphorylated CREB binds to the CREB-binding protein
(CBP) and acts as a transcriptional co-activator of NF-
Bp65
[41
]. The chicken lysozyme-promoter region contains no
CRE but does contain a binding site for NF-
B/Rel.
NF-
B/Rel-containing protein complexes binding to this element have
been shown to be activated by LPS in HD11 cells [4
].
Zhong et al. [42
] have demonstrated that the
binding of NF-
Bp65 to CREB via CBP is essential for NF-
B-enhanced
transcriptional activity that is also dependent on phosphorylation of
NF-
Bp65 induced by PKA. Also, Muroi and Suzuki [10
]
have shown the involvement of PKA in NF-
B/Rel activation in J774
cells. Thus, the synergistic effect of PKA and Ca2+ on the
lysozyme expression in HD11 cells seems to be because of the
involvement of PKA and Ca2+ in phosphorylation of
C/EBPß(NF-M), CREB, and NF-
B/Rel.
PU.1, originally identified as the proto-oncogene Spi-1
[43
], is shown to be implicated in LPS-inducible gene
expression (for review, see [44
]). Transciptional
activity of PU.1 is enhanced by phosphorylation at
serine148 following LPS stimulation [45
]. By
contrast, its binding activity is not stimulated in LPS-treated
RAW264.7 [45
] and HD11 cells [46
]. The
-2.7-kb lysozyme enhancer containing a PU.1-binding site in addition
to a C/EBP site [46
, 47
] is also able to
confer LPS responsiveness in HD11 cells ([46
] and
unpublished results), suggesting an involvement of PU.1 in the
LPS-activated lysozyme expression.
In summary, we have demonstrated that PKA, PKC, and Ca2+
regulate the LPS-activated lysozyme expression. It is tempting to
speculate that C/EBPß(NF-M), CREB, NF-
B/Rel, and PU.1 may be the
main targets for signal-transduction pathways mediated by PKA, PKC, and
Ca2+ in LPS-activated myelomonocytic HD11 cells.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported in part by a grant from the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft
(L. P.). We thank S. Trampenau and K.
Zimmermann for skillful
technical assistance.
Received August 14, 2000;
revised December 4, 2000;
accepted December 5, 2000.

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