Oscillating fluid flow inhibits TNF-alpha -induced NF-kappa B activation via an Ikappa B kinase pathway in osteoblast-like UMR106 cells.

Fluid flow plays an important role in load-induced bone remodeling. However, the molecular mechanism of flow-induced signal transduction in osteoblasts remains unclear. In endothelial cells, fluid flow alters activation of NF-kappaB resulting in changes in expression of cell adhesion molecules. To test the hypothesis that fluid flow alters NF-kappaB activation and expression of cell adhesion molecules in osteoblastic cells, we examined the effect of oscillating fluid flow (OFF) on tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha-induced NF-kappaB activation in rat osteoblast-like UMR106 cells. We found that OFF inhibits NF-kappaB-DNA binding activities, especially TNF-alpha-induced p50-p65 heterodimer NF-kappaB activation and TNF-alpha-induced intercellular adhesion molecule-1 mRNA expression. The inhibitory effects of OFF on both TNF-alpha-induced NF-kappaB activation and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 mRNA expression were shear stress-dependent and also increased with OFF exposure duration, indicating that OFF has potent effects on mechanotransduction pathways. OFF also inhibited TNF-alpha-induced IkappaBalpha degradation and TNF-alpha-induced IkappaB kinase (IKK) activity in a shear stress-dependent manner. These results demonstrate that IKK is an initial target molecule for OFF effects on osteoblastic cells. Thus, OFF inhibits TNF-alpha-induced IKK activation, leading to a decrease in phosphorylation and degradation of inhibitory IkappaBalpha, which in turn results in the decrease of TNF-alpha-induced NF-kappaB activation and potentially the transcription of target genes.