Tumor necrosis factor stimulates Na+/H+ antiporter in human fibroblasts: dissociation between intracellular alkalinization and cytokine mRNA accumulation

Several hormones and cytokines stimulate the cellular Na+/H+ antiporter and this stimulation may be a signal transduction mechanism to mediate gene expression. We find that tumor necrosis factor rapidly stimulates both the Na+/H+ antiporter and the accumulation of mRNA coding for granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and interleukin-6 in fibroblasts. Further experiments show that these phenomena occur independent of each other.