Differential contributions of protein kinase C isoforms in the regulation of group IIA secreted phospholipase A2 expression in cytokine-stimulated rat fibroblasts

Protein kinase C (PKC) is a family of serine/threonine kinases involved in various signal transduction pathways. We investigated the roles of PKC in the regulation of group IIA secreted phospholipase A2 (sPLA2-IIA) expression in cytokine-stimulated rat fibroblastic 3Y1 cells. Here we show that the induction of sPLA2-IIA by proinflammatory cytokines was under the control of both classical cPKCα and atypical aPKCλ/ι pathways by using PKC inhibitors, a PKC activator, and PKC knockdowns. Treatment of 3Y1 cells with PKC selective inhibitors having broad specificity, such as chelerythrine chloride and GF109203X, blocked IL-1β/TNFα-dependent induction of sPLA2-IIA protein in a dose-dependent manner. Treatment with the PKC activator phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), which activates cPKC and novel nPKC isoforms, markedly attenuated the cytokine-dependent induction of sPLA2-IIA expression. In comparison, 24-h pretreatment with PMA, which down-regulates these PKC isoforms, markedly enhanced sPLA2-IIA expression. Results with short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated knockdown of PKC isoforms revealed that the cytokine-induced sPLA2-IIA expression was markedly enhanced in cPKCα knockdown cells compared to those in replicate control cells. In contrast, knockdown of the aPKCλ/ι isoform reduced the cytokine-induced expression of sPLA2-IIA. These results suggest that the aPKCλ/ι pathway is required for the induction of sPLA2-IIA expression and that the cPKCα pathway acts as a negative regulator of sPLA2-IIA expression in cytokine-stimulated rat fibroblasts.