Cytokines activate the nuclear factor κB (NF‐κB) and induce nitric oxide production in human pancreatic islets

Abstract
We studied the ability of cytokines to activate the nuclear transcription factor NF‐κB in human pancreatic islets and the putative role of NF‐κB for cytokine‐induced NO production. Brief exposure (20 min) of human islets of Langerhans to a combination of interleukin‐lβ + interferon‐γ + tumor necrosis factor‐a induced a 2.6‐fold increase in nuclear NF‐κB activity in gel shift analysis. This increase was prevented by the NF‐κB inhibitor, pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC), which also counteracted NO production by human islets exposed for 14 h to the cytokine combination. High concentrations of interleukin‐lβ alone (150 and 250 U/ml) increased NF‐κB nuclear binding but failed to induce NO formation in human islets. The present data are the first to demonstrate that cytokines activate NF‐κB in primary adult human pancreatic islets and suggest that activation of NF‐KB may be a necessary but not sufficient signal for cytokine‐induced iNOS expression in human islets of Langerhans.

This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit: