High resolution two-dimensional gel electrophoresis was used to analyze the signal transduction pathways of tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) and interleukin 1 (IL-1 alpha and -beta) in human fibroblasts. Approximately 450 discrete radioactive spots were electrophoretically resolved from cytosolic extracts of cells prelabeled with 32P. At least 63 of these polypeptides exhibited significant and concordant phosphorylation or dephosphorylation in response to TNF or IL-1, despite the fact that different receptors are involved. Most of these changes concerned serine/threonine residues although enhanced tyrosine phosphorylation of several polypeptides was also observed. Phosphorylation patterns induced by a number of other agonists were compared with the patterns induced by IL-1 and TNF. These included activators of protein kinases C and A, bradykinin (a stimulator of inositol phospholipid hydrolysis), epidermal growth factor, heatshock, and mellitin (an activator of phospholipase A2). Although each of these agonists induced changes resulting in a distinct pattern of protein phosphorylation, none of these patterns had significant homology with that induced by IL-1 and TNF. Other assays were performed to verify the involvement of specific kinases. Collectively, these data indicate that IL-1 and TNF activate multiple protein kinases viz. a kinase(s) which activates microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP-2) kinase, a kinase that phosphorylates the cap-binding protein, and a possibly novel serine/threonine protein kinase.