The activation of microglial cells is involved in the pathogenesis of a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, stroke and traumatic brain injuries. Recent studies suggest that protein acetylation can affect the extent of inflammatory responses. Our aim was to elucidate whether histone deacetylase inhibitors, inducers of protein hyperacetylation, regulate the inflammatory response in neural models of inflammation in vitro and whether neurone-glia interactions affect this regulation. Interestingly, we observed that histone deacetylase inhibitors, such as trichostatin A (TSA) and suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid, strongly potentiated the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory response in murine N9 and rat primary microglial cells as well in neural co-cultures and hippocampal slice cultures. TSA clearly potentiated the LPS-induced expression of interleukin (IL)-6 and inducible nitric oxide synthase mRNAs, as well as the secretion of cytokines IL-6, tumour necrosis factor-alpha and macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-2, and nitric oxide (NO). Co-culture and slice culture experiments showed that the presence of astrocytes and neurones did not stimulate or prevent the pro-inflammatory potentiation induced by histone deacetylase inhibitor in microglial cells. The potentiation of cytokine and NO responses was blocked by the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappa B) inhibitors caffeic acid phenethyl ester and helenalin, demonstrating that the NF-kappa B signalling pathway is involved. The DNA-binding activity of the NF-kappa B complex was strongly increased by LPS treatment but not enhanced by TSA. This suggests that potentiation of the inflammatory response is not dependent on the level of cytoplasmic NF-kappa B activation or DNA-binding activity but that site of action may be at the level of transcriptional regulation. Our results suggest that environmental stresses, ageing, diet and diseases that regulate protein acetylation status may also affect the inflammatory response.