The role intestinal epithelial cells play in the pathogenesis of amebic colitis is poorly understood. Herein, we demonstrate that secreted and soluble ameba (Entamoeba histolytica) proteins (SAP) induce expression of the chemoattractant monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP) in the colonic epithelial cell lines Caco-2, T84, and LS174T. MCP-1 mRNA induction was both dose and time dependent, with peak induction occurring at 8 h and with 100 mug/ml of SAP. Significant increase in MCP-1 protein expression was observed after 12 h. SAP failed to activate any of the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways or IkappaB kinase activity. Moreover, inhibiting the classical pathway of NF-kappaB activation did not affect SAP-induced MCP-1 expression. Instead, we find that SAP-induced MCP-1 expression is dependent on posttranslational modification of the NFkappaB p65 subunit. SAP induced phosphorylation of p65 and enhanced NF-kappaB transcriptional activity, which are phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3 kinase) dependent. Treatment with PI3 kinase inhibitor LY290004 significantly abrogated the activation of Akt, p65, and MCP-1 mRNA induction. We conclude that colonic epithelial cells play a role in the initiation of inflammation by secreting chemokines in response to soluble ameba components.