Role of IkappaBalpha and IkappaBbeta in the biphasic nuclear translocation of NF-kappaB in TNFalpha-stimulated astrocytes and in neuroblastoma cells.

In infectious diseases of the central nervous system astrocytes respond to inflammatory cytokines like tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) by activation of the transcription factor NF-kappaB, mediated by the proteolysis of its inhibitors IkappaBalpha and IkappaBbeta. We studied the kinetics of NF-kappaB induction by TNFalpha in primary astrocytes, and in the neuroblastoma cell line Neuro2A, and compared it to fibroblasts. In the latter, NF-kappaB DNA binding activity was induced at 30 min and remained constant up to 4 h. In contrast, in astrocytes and in Neuro2A cells NF-kappaB DNA binding activity followed a biphasic pattern: it was induced after 30 min (early phase), declined after 1 h, and increased again at 2 to 4 h (late phase). The early phase was due to rapid degradation of IkappaBalpha. After 1 h IkappaBalpha was resynthesized to levels exceeding the amounts present in unstimulated cells. This paralleled the low levels of nuclear NF-kappaB binding activity. The decrease was not observed when IkappaBalpha resynthesis was inhibited by cycloheximide. Degradation of both IkappaBalpha and IkappaBbeta contributed to the late phase of induction. However, the second peak occurred also in the absence of IkappaBbeta proteolysis, demonstrating the importance of IkappaBalpha in the formation of the biphasic nuclear translocation of NF-kappaB.