High mobility group box 1 protein, a cue for stem cell recruitment.
High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is a non-histone protein required to maintain chromatin architecture. Recent observations demonstrated that HMGB1 can also act as a cytokine to regulate different biological processes such as inflammation, cell migration and metastasis. We showed previously that HMGB1 can be released passively by cells that die in a traumatic and unprogrammed way, and can serve a signal of tissue damage. More recently, we showed that HMGB1 can recruit stem cells: HMGB1 induces stem cell transmigration through an endothelial barrier; moreover, when beads containing HMGB1 are implanted into healthy muscle, they recruit stem cells injected into the general circulation. The inflammatory and tissue-regenerating roles of HMGB1 may be strictly interconnected, and are discussed here.
Department of Molecular Biology and Functional Genomics, San Raffaele Research Institute, San Raffaele University, via Olgettina 58, 20132 Milan, Italy.
Roberta
R
Palumbo
Marco E
ME
Bianchi
D000818:Animals; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D016207:Cytokines / Q000502:physiology; D005544:Forecasting; D024243:HMGB1 Protein / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D018836:Inflammation Mediators; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology
D016207:Cytokines; D024243:HMGB1 Protein; D018836:Inflammation Mediators