NF-κB and AP-1 connection: Mechanism of NF-κB-dependent regulation of AP-1 activity

Nuclear factor κB(NF-κB) and activator protein 1 (AP-1) transcription factors regulate many important biological and pathological processes. Activation of NF-κB is regulated by the inducible phosphorylation of NF-κB inhibitor IκB by IκB kinase. In contrast, Fos, a key component of AP-1, is primarily transcriptionally regulated by serum responsive factors (SRFs) and ternary complex factors (TCFs). Despite these different regulatory mechanisms, there is an intriguing possibility that NF-κB and AP-1 may modulate each other, thus expanding the scope of these two rapidly inducible transcription factors. To determine whether NF-κB activity is involved in the regulation of fos expression in response to various stimuli, we analyzed activity of AP-1 and expression of fos, fosB, fra-1, fra-2, jun, junB, and junD, as well as AP-1 downstream target gene VEGF, using MDAPanc-28 and MBAPanc-28/IκBαM pancreatic tumor cells and wild-type, IKK1^-/-, and IKK2^-/- murine embryonic fibroblast cells. Our results show that elk-1, a member of TCFs, is one of the NF-κB downstream target genes. Inhibition of NF-κB activity greatly decreased expression of elk-1. Consequently, the reduced level of activated Elk-1 protein by extracellular signal-regulated kinase impeded constitutive, serum-, and superoxide-inducible c-fos expression. Thus, our study revealed a distinct and essential role of NF-κB in participating in the regulation of elk-1, c-fos, and VEGF expression.