Cellular Aspects of the Regulation of the Transcriptional Activity of Nuclear Factor Kappa B (NF-κB) in Sensory Neurons in Vitro

Nuclear factor kappa B regulates the expression of a multitude of anti/proapoptotic genes, in nerve cells among others. Intranuclear acetylation processes play an important role in the mechanism regulating the activity of NF-κB. The aim of the present work was to identify the transcriptional activity of NF-κB in sensory neurons in vitro and to explain the possible regulation of NF-κB activity by modification of acetylation processes using a transgenic strain of reporter mice in which NF-κB activation leads to expression of the LacZ reporter gene. Expression of the reporter gene was found not to occur in transgenic neurons cultured either in normal growth medium or after stimulation with TNF-α, though it was induced in most neurons by in vitro exposure to the histone deacetylase inhibitor trichostatin (TSA). Thus, the transcriptional activity of NF-κB is restricted to sensory neurons be a repression mechanism mediated by histone deacetylases.