Retinoic acid and tumor necrosis factor-α induced monocytic cell gene expression is regulated in part by induction of transcription factor MafB

► Retinoic acid and TNFα synergistically increase expression of MafB in THP1 cells. ► SPOCK1, Blimp1 and CLL2 are identified as MARE-containing MafB target genes. ► These MafB target genes correlate well with RA-and TNFα-induced MafB expression. ► Decreasing MafB expression using miRNAs reduces the expression of each target gene. ► MafB is likely to be an important transcription factor in monocytic cell function.