A central role for the nuclear factor-κB pathway in anti-inflammatory and proinflammatory actions of mechanical strain

SPECIFIC AIMSMechanical signals play an integral role in bone homeostasis. The present report shows that signals generated by tensile strain of low magnitude (TENS-L) are anti-inflammatory and inhibit proinflammatory gene induction, whereas signals generated by tensile strain of high magnitude (TENS-H) induce proinflammatory genes in osteoblast-like periodontal ligament (PDL) cells. The objective of this study was to investigate the mechanisms of intracellular actions of TENS-L and TENS-H. We show that TENS-L and TENS-H exploit the nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) signal transduction pathway disparately as a central mechanism to modulate proinflammatory gene induction.PRINCIPAL FINDINGS1. Tensile strain exerts anti-inflammatory and proinflammatory effects in a magnitude-dependent mannerTensile forces regulate responses of bone-like PDL cells to interleukin 1β (IL-1β), a cytokine known to mediate activation of multiple proinflammatory genes, including cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). To examine how various magnitudes of...