INDUCIBILITY OF RANTES MESSENGER-RNA BY IL-1-BETA IN HUMAN BRONCHIAL EPITHELIAL-CELLS IS ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED NF-KAPPA-B DNA-BINDING ACTIVITY

RANTES is a member of a large supergene family of proinflammatory chem okines that seems to play an important role in inflammatory processes. It is produced by many cell types in response to specific stimuli and during inflammatory reactions, but the marked differences in the patt ern of induced expression suggest that different control mechanisms re gulate transcription of RANTES in various tissue types. This is suppor ted by the presence of a large number of potential binding sites for t rascriptional factors in the promoter region of the RANTES gene. Our d ata indicate that expression of RANTES mRNA induced by IL-IP in human lung epithelial cells is associated with the activation of the transcr iptional factor NF-kappa B. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.