response to LPS of WT and IRAK4 kinase dead mouse bone marrow macrophages

IRAK-4 is an essential component of the signal transduction complex downstream of the IL-1- and Toll-like receptors. Though regarded as the first kinase in the signaling cascade, the role of IRAK-4 kinase activity versus its scaffold function is still controversial. In order to investigate the role of IRAK-4 kinase function in vivo, ‘knock-in’ mice were generated by replacing the wild type IRAK-4 gene with a mutant gene encoding kinase deficient IRAK-4 protein (IRAK-4 KD). Analysis of bone marrow macrophages obtained from WT and IRAK-4 KD mice with a number of experimental techniques demonstrated that the IRAK-4 KD cells greatly lack responsiveness to stimulation with the Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) agonist LPS. One of the techniques used, microarray analysis, identified IRAK-4 kinase-dependent LPS response genes and revealed that the induction of LPS-responsive mRNAs was largely ablated in IRAK-4 KD cells. In summary, our results suggest that IRAK-4 kinase activity plays a critical role in TLR4-mediated induction of inflammatory responses. Keywords: genetic modification, strain comparison, cell stimulation, time course, anti-bacterial response, innate immune response, inflammatory response The response of mouse bone marrow macrophages from WT and IRAK4 kinase dead animals to stimulation with LPS at two time points was determined. There were 12 samples in total, 6 from WT and 6 from IRAK4 kinase dead cells; for each strain there were 3 conditions: growth for 4 hours without stimulation (the strain-specific control), growth for 1 hour with stimulation, and growth for 4 hours with stimulation; for each condition there were two biological replicates.