Immunomodulated signaling in macrophages: Studies on activation of Raf-1, MAPK, cPLA2 and secretion of IL-12

Little is known about the mechanism and signal transduction by LPS-mediated immunomodulation of murine peritoneal macrophages. It is found that the signal molecules of the down-stream of Ras, Raf-1, MAPK p44, and MAPK p42 are phosphorylated, and cPLA2 is activated with a significant increase of the release of [ H3 ] AA by macrophages in response to LPS and PMA. Compared with the very recent finding that LPS and PMA trigger the activation and translocation of PKC-α and PKC-e, these findings suggest that there is a connection between PKC signaling pathway and the Raf-1/MAPK pathway and that the activation of these main signaling events may be closely related to the secretion of IL-12 during LPS-induced modulation of macrophages.