Increased concentration of high-mobility group box 1 protein in milk is related to the severity of bovine mastitis.

High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) protein is the major component of the nonhistone nuclear protein group and is involved in nucleosome stabilization and transcription regulation. HMGB1 has recently been focused on as a proinflammatory cytokine associated with various inflammatory diseases and as a target of anti-inflammatory therapy. Mastitis, a serious inflammatory disease of dairy cows, is caused by infection of the mammary gland and has detrimental effects on the quantity and quality of milk. By detecting the presence of HMGB1 in milk, we investigated the correlation between HMGB1 concentration and the severity of bovine mastitis, which was determined using the California Mastitis Test and somatic cell count (SCC). We detected a substantial amount of HMGB1 in mastitic milk but not in the milk from normal cows. We used the Spearman rank correlation coefficient to assess the relationship between HMGB1 concentration and SCC and found a significant correlation (n = 12, r = 0.975). Thus, we confirmed the positive correlation between HMGB1 concentration and SCC in milk, i.e., the severity of mastitis, which suggested that HMGB1 in milk is a new indicator of bovine mastitis.