miRNA arrays for LPS-activated Akt1+/+ and Akt1-/- macrophages

MicroRNAs regulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) target genes that contribute to the inflammatory phenotype. Here we showed that the protein kinase Akt1, which is activated by LPS, positively regulated miRNAs let-7e, miR-181c but negatively regulated miR-155 and miR-125b. In silico analyses and transfection studies revealed that let-7e repressed Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) whereas miR-155 repressed SOCS1, two proteins critical for LPS-driven TLR signalling, which regulate endotoxin sensitivity and tolerance. As a result, Akt1-/- macrophages exhibited increased responsiveness to LPS in culture and Akt1-/- mice did not develop endotoxin tolerance in vivo. Overexpression of let-7e and suppression of miR-155 in Akt1-/- macrophages restored sensitivity and tolerance to LPS in culture and in animals. These results indicate that Akt1 regulates the response of macrophages to LPS by controlling miRNA expression. The data deposited here contain the entire analysis of miRNA profile of Akt1+/+ and Akt1-/- thioglycollate elicited peritoneal macrophages following stimulation with LPS for 3 hours in culture. Thioglycollate elicited macrophages were cultured in complete DMEM medium, stimulated with LPS for 3 hours and RNA was extracted. Samples were analyzed using Taq-man PCR miRNA arrays (Dana Farber microarray Facility).