Lee, Robin E. C.Qasaimeh, Mohammad A.Xia, XianfangJuncker, DavidGaudet, Suzanne2017-01-032016Lee, Robin E. C., Mohammad A. Qasaimeh, Xianfang Xia, David Juncker, and Suzanne Gaudet. 2016. “NF-κB signalling and cell fate decisions in response to a short pulse of tumour necrosis factor.” Scientific Reports 6 (1): 39519. doi:10.1038/srep39519. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep39519.2045-2322http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:29739022In tissues and tumours, cell behaviours are regulated by multiple time-varying signals. While in the laboratory cells are often exposed to a stimulus for the duration of the experiment, in vivo exposures may be much shorter. In this study, we monitored NF-κB and caspase signalling in human cancer cells treated with a short pulse of Tumour Necrosis Factor (TNF). TNF is an inflammatory cytokine that can induce both the pro-survival NF-κB-driven gene transcription pathway and the pro-apoptotic caspase pathway. We find that a few seconds of exposure to TNF is sufficient to activate the NF-κB pathway in HeLa cells and induce apoptotic cell death in both HeLa and Kym-1 cells. Strikingly, a 1-min pulse of TNF can be more effective at killing than a 1-hour pulse, indicating that in addition to TNF concentration, duration of exposure also coordinates cell fate decisions.en-USJournal Article2017-01-0310.1038/srep39519