[High-mobility group box protein 1 in synergy with interleukin-1ß promotes interleukin-8 expression in human airway epithelial cells in vitro].

OBJECTIVE: To test the effect of high-mobility group box protein 1 (HMGB1) alone or in synergy with interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß) on the expression of IL-8 in human airway epithelial cells in vitro. METHODS: Human airway epithelial 16HBE and A549 cell lines were incubated with HMGB1 (100 ng/ml) in the absence or presence of IL-1ß (10 ng/ml) for 24 h, and the changes of IL-8 mRNA and protein expressions were assessed using quantitative PCR and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: In the two human airway epithelial cell lines, HMGB1 alone did not produce obvious effect on the expression of IL-8, but in the presence of IL-1ß, HMGB1 caused a significant increase of IL-8 expressions at both the mRNA and protein levels. CONCLUSION: HMGB1 in synergy with IL-1ß increases the expression of IL-8 in human airway epithelial cells, which provides new evidence that HMGB1 contributes to neutrophilic airway inflammation by regulating IL-8 expression.