Leustroducsin B activates nuclear factor-kappaB via the acidic sphingomyelinase pathway in human bone marrow-derived stromal cell line KM-102.

The novel colony-stimulating factor (CSF) inducer leustroducsin B (LSN-B), which was isolated from Streptomyces platensis, has been shown to have potent cytokine-inducing activities in clonal human bone marrow-derived stromal cell line KM-102 and in primary human bone marrow-derived stromal cells. In this study, we investigated the signal transduction pathway of LSN-B using luciferase expression plasmids linked to the 5'-flanking region of interleukin-8 (IL-8) and that of the IL-11 gene. In KM-102 cells, LSN-B induced luciferase activity both in the wild-type and in the activated protein 1 (AP-1) site point-mutated IL-8 promoter. The mutation in the nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) site abrogated LSN-B-stimulated induction of the reporter gene. LSN-B-inducing activity was inhibited by (1) N-acetyl-L-cysteine, a well-characterized antioxidant, (2) cationic amphiphilic drugs, inhibitors of acidic sphingomyelinase (A-SMase), and (3) D609, an inhibitor of phosphatidylcholine-specific phospholipase C (PC-PLC). These observations suggest that LSN-B potentiates the A-SMase-mediated signaling pathway to stimulate NF-kappaB. In contrast, LSN-B did not induce IL-11 promoter-driven luciferase activity. The observed increase in IL-11 mRNA stability by LSN-B indicates that the inducible production of IL-11 by LSN-B is regulated at the posttranscriptional level. In addition, inhibition of LSN-B-mediated induction of IL-11 production by cationic amphiphilic drugs and D609 in KM-102 cells demonstrates that increased IL-11 mRNA stability by LSN-B might be mediated via NF-kappaB activation. From these results, we suggest that LSN-B induces cytokine production through at least two separate mechanisms, at the transcriptional level and at the posttranscriptional level via NF-kappaB activation.