Macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2) is a mouse C-X-C chemokine that plays an important role in the recruitment of neutrophils. The unregulated production of MIP-2 has been associated with inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, glomerulonephritis, and sepsis. We have shown that the MIP-2 gene expression is transcriptionally activated by synthetic oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) containing unmethylated CpG dinucleotides in the context of particular base sequences (CpG-ODN) in a CpG sequence-dependent manner. Inhibition of NF-kappaB nuclear localization by coexpression of a mutant IkappaBalpha protein blocked CpG-ODN-induced transcription from a MIP-2 promoter-reporter construct, showing that NF-kappaB activation is required for MIP-2 gene expression in the CpG-ODN-signaling pathway. We also provided evidence that NF-kappaB and c-Jun contributes to the expression of MIP-2 gene in response to CpG-ODN, since ectopical expression of NF-kappaB and c-Jun in RAW 246.7 cells leads to dramatically increase the ability of CpG-ODN 1826(S) in MIP-2 promoter activity. These results perhaps give more insights into understanding of the mechanisms involved in transient inflammatory arthritis induction by CpG-ODN treatment. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.