Role and mechanisms of HMGB1 in respiratory diseases / 中国药理学通报

ABSTRACT

High-mobility group box 1 ( HMGB1 ) is a conserva-tive nuclear protein and plays an essential role in maintaining nu-cleosome stability, DNA recombination, replication, repair and transcription. It can be passively released by necrotic cells or ac-tively secreted into extracellular under appropriate stimulus. Re-cent studies show that the activation of HMGB1 signaling is closely related to the progress of lung diseases including lung in-jury, pulmonary fibrosis and lung cancer, while blocking HMGB1 signaling inhibits the pathological process, indicating the therapeutic potential of HMGB1 inhibition in treating these diseases. This review summarizes the role and mechanisms of HMGB1 in such diseases, in order to provide novel evidence for the diagnosis and treatment.