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Proinflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interleukin-1beta, and lipopolysaccharides (LPS), suppress the gene expression of cytochrome P-450 1A1 (cyp1a1). The mechanism of the suppression is not well understood. In present study, we show that activation of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) is a critical event leading to the suppression of cyp1a1 gene expression, thus providing an underlying mechanism for the TNF-alpha- and LPS-induced cyp1a1 suppression. We demonstrated that: (i) inducible RelA expression down-regulated aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) activated reporter gene; (ii) the suppressive effects of LPS and TNF-alpha on the AhR-activated reporter gene could be blocked by pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate, which is known to inhibit NF-kappaB action; and (iii) TNF-alpha and LPS-imposed repression could be reversed by the NF-kappaB super repressor (SRIkappaBalpha), thus demonstrating the specific involvement of NF-kappaB. Furthermore, nuclear receptor coactivators p300/CBP and steroid receptor coactivator-1 act individually as well as cooperatively to reverse the suppressive effects by NF-kappaB on the AhR-activated reporter gene, suggesting that these transcriptional coactivators serve as the common integrators for the two pathways, thereby mediating the cross-interactions between AhR and NF-kappaB. Finally, using the chromatin immunoprecipitation assay, we demonstrated that AhR ligand induces histone H4 acetylation at the cyp1a1 promoter region containing the TATA box, whereas TNF-alpha inhibits this acetylation, suggesting that AhR/NF-kappaB interaction converges at level of transcription involving chromatin remodeling.
Ke et al. (Mon,) studied this question.