Given that IKKɛ deficiency abrogates AKT and ERK1/2 activations, transcriptional activation of Dusp family of MKPs in IKKɛ-deficient cells may be due to their essential roles in stimulating cell survival as previously shown for Dusp9 in squamous cell carcinoma (Liu et al., 2007[36]). Here, AKT1 is linked to squamous cell carcinoma.