Abstract: Nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) is widespread in mammal which is responsible for immune response, cell adhesion, differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis. Most of the genes encoding inflammatory proteins involved in neutrophil migration and activation have been shown to contain κB sites for the NF-κB within their promoter region and therefore partly depend on NF-κB for their expression，suggesting that this transcription factor might play a critical roles in the pathophysiology of mastitis. This paper summarized NF-κB characteristic，function and expression mechanism, for the purpose to give some fundamental messages to understand the mechanisms of dairy mastitis.

Key words: nuclear factor κB; mastitis; dairy cow