Exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) combined with phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA) stimulates de novo synthesis of inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS-2) in C6 glioma cells. Ethanol dose-dependently inhibits C6 cell NOS-2 activity, as measured by nitrite accumulation in culture medium, when present during LPS plus PMA treatment. The present study reports on mechanisms related to this inhibition. Ethanol added directly to cytosolic extracts did not inhibit NOS-2 catalytic activity, nor did ethanol decrease nitrite accumulation when added to cultures 24 hr after LPS plus PMA treatment. In contrast, NOS-2 enzymatic activity was significantly decreased in cytosolic extracts from cultures simultaneously exposed to ethanol and LPS plus PMA for 24 hr. Immunoblot analysis showed a coincident decrease in NOS-2 protein immunoreactivity. RNA analysis revealed that NOS-2 mRNA was decreased at both 12 and 24 hr during LPS plus PMA induction in the presence of ethanol. Subsequent experiments confirmed that 12-hr exposure to ethanol was sufficient to inhibit LPS/PMA-induced NOS-2 activity. Ethanol exposure also inhibited NOS-2 activity induced by LPS plus interferon-gamma, by LPS plus tumor necrosis factor-alpha and by tumor necrosis factor-alpha alone. These data point to an inhibitory ethanol effect at a site downstream from cytokine receptor activation and second messenger signal transduction mechanisms leading to suppression of NOS-2 gene expression in C6 cells.