Ketamine alleviates HMGB1-induced acute lung injury through TLR4 signaling pathway

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a common critical respiratory disease that seriously threatens human health. Ketamine has good anti-inflammatory and immune-regulating properties that can delay the lung injury process.

High mobility group box protein 1 (HMGB1) plays an important role in the occurrence, development and treatment of ALI. Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) is the receptor for HMGB1. The aim of this study was to determine the role of the HMGB1 TLR4 signaling pathway in the treatment of ALI using ketamine.

A total of 30 healthy, male, 8-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly, equally divided into a control group, an lipopolysaccharide (LPS) group and a ketamine group. In order to establish a rat ALI model, 15 mg/kg of LPS was injected into the femoral veins. Ketamine was intravenously injected (10 mg/kg) into the experimental group rats. The rats were euthanized 24 h after modeling and lung tissue samples were collected. Western blot was used to test TLR4, MyD88, TRAF-6, LOX-1, and HMGB1 protein expression in the lung tissue. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed to detect TLR4, MyD88, TRAF-6, LOX-1, and HMGB1 mRNA levels.

Compared with the controls, the LPS group had significantly higher TLR4, MyD88, TRAF-6, LOX-1, and HMGB1 mRNA and protein levels (p < 0.05). These levels were significantly lower after ketamine intervention in comparison with the LPS group (p < 0.05). A positive correlation was found between TLR4 and HMGB1 expression in the LPS and ketamine groups (r = 0.952, p < 0.001; r = 0.941, p < 0.001).

Ketamine attenuates HMGB1-induced ALI, possibly by regulating the TLR4 signaling pathway.