Role of epiregulin in peptidoglycan-induced proinflammatory cytokine production by antigen presenting cells.

We have previously found that epiregulin, a member of epidermal growth factor superfamily, is involved in proinflammatory cytokine production in bone marrow-derived macrophages. In this report, to further assess the role of epiregulin in innate immunity, we measured IL-6 production levels upon lipopolysaccharide and peptidoglycan stimulation in antigen presenting cells including macrophages and dendritic cells. Our analyses using epiregulin-deficient mice with mixed and inbred genetic backgrounds revealed that epiregulin deficiency results in the reduction of IL-6 production levels in both cell types upon peptidoglycan stimulation, and that the extent of this reduction is more evident under the BALB/c background compared with the C57BL/6J background. These results indicated that epiregulin may have a critical role in the regulation of peptidoglycan-mediated proinflammatory cytokine production in antigen presenting cells and innate immunity.