Combined effects of multiple endoplasmic reticulum stresses on cytokine secretion in macrophage

Cells show various stress signs when they are challenged with severe physiological problems. Majority of such cellular stresses are conveyed to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and unfolded protein response (UPR) serves as typical defense mechanism against ER stress. This study investigated an interaction between ER stress agents using macropage cell line Raw 264.7. When activated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS), the cell lines showed typical indicators of ER stress. Along with molecular chaperones, the activation process leads to the production of additional infl ammatory mediators. Following activation, the macrophage cell line was further treated with TUN and characterized in terms of chaperone expression and cytokine secretion. When treated with TUN, the activated macrophage cell leads to increased secretion of IL-6 although expression of ER stress markers, GRP94 and GRP78 increased. The secretion of cytokines continued until the addition of BFA which inhibits protein targeting from ER to Golgi. However, secretion of cytokines was ceased upon dual treatments with BFA and TG. This result strongly implies that cells may differently deal with various polypeptides depending on the urgency in cellular function under ER stress. Considering IL-6 is one of the most important signal molecules in macrophage, the molecule might be able to circumvent ER stress and UPR to reach its targeting site.