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During infection, circulating blood monocytes migrate from the vasculature to the extravascular compartments where they mature into tissue macrophages. The maturation process prepares the cell to actively participate in the inflammatory and the immune responses, and many transcription factors have been found to be involved. Here we report on a novel role for nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) in this process. Its accumulation in the cytoplasm of differentiated macrophages is responsible for the enhanced ability of the cell to respond to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation, as determined by tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) secretion. Differentiation of the human monocytic cell line THP-1 into macrophage-like cells was induced by exposure of the cells to phorbol myristate acetate. DNA-bindable NF-κB was not detected in the cytoplasm of undifferentiated THP-1 cells but accumulated in the cytoplasm of the cells …