Journal
JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGY
Volume 177, Issue 2, Pages 1282-1288Publisher
AMER ASSOC IMMUNOLOGISTS
DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.177.2.1282
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Funding
- NIAID NIH HHS [R01 AI049383-06A1, R01 AI049383, AI 49383] Funding Source: Medline
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To gain insight into the molecular mechanism(s) whereby macrophages produce large amounts of IL-10, we analyzed IL-10 gene expression and temporally correlated it with modifications to chromatin associated with the IL-10 promoter. In resting cells, which make essentially no cytokines, the IL-10 promoter is associated with histones containing little or no detectable modifications. Macrophages stimulated in the presence of immune complexes begin to produce high levels of IL-10 pre-mRNA transcripts within minutes of stimulation. Coincident with this transcription was a rapid and dynamic phosphorylation of histone H3 at specific sites in the IL-10 promoter. Histone phosphorylation was closely followed by the binding of transcription factors to the IL-10 promoter. Blocking the activation of ERK prevented histone phosphorylation and transcription factor binding to the IL-10 promoter. In contrast to histone phosphorylation, the peak of histone acetylation at this promoter did not occur until after transcription had peaked. Inhibition of histone deactylase did not alter IL-10 gene expression, suggesting that phosphorylation but not acetylation was the proximal event responsible for IL-10 transcription. Our findings reveal a rapid and well-orchestrated series of events in which ERK activation causes a rapid and transient phosphorylation of histone H3 at specific regions of the IL-10 promoter, resulting in a transient exposure of the IL-10 promoter to the transcription factors that bind there. This exposure is essential for the efficient induction of IL-10 gene expression in macrophages. To our knowledge, this represents a unique way in which the expression of a cytokine gene is regulated in macrophages.
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