Lipopolysaccharide regulates biosynthesis of cystathionine γ-lyase and hydrogen sulfide through Toll-like receptor-4/p38 and Toll-like receptor-4/NF-κB pathways in macrophages.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), formed mainly by the enzyme cystathionine γ-lyase (CSE) in macrophages, is emerging as a novel regulator in inflammation. Although elevated production of H2S has been shown in inflammatory processes, the underlying molecular mechanism remains to be further elucidated. In this study, we compared parallel TLR4 knockout (TLR4(-/-)) mice with their wild-type counterparts following lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment. It showed that LPS increased the expressions of CSE and biosynthesis of H2S in C57BL/6 mice both in vivo and in vitro. However, the effects of LPS were not present in TLR4(-/-) mice, indicating the crucial role of TLR4 in LPS-induced expression of CSE and biosynthesis of H2S. We subsequently used JNK inhibitor, P38 inhibitor, and ERK inhibitor to block the downstream MAPK pathways of TLR4 in macrophages, and found that LPS-induced CSE expression and H2S synthesizing activity were inhibited by pretreatment with the p38 inhibitor. Similarly, the NF-κB inhibitor (BAY 11-7082) reversed the effects of LPS. These results suggest that LPS increases the biosynthesis of CSE and H2S in macrophages mainly in a TLR4-p38-dependent and TLR-4-NF-κB-dependent manner. These findings expand our knowledge of H2S biosynthesis during inflammation and provide a foundation for the development of novel H2S-based therapies.