High mobility group box-1 serves a pathogenic role in spinal cord injury via the promotion of pro-inflammatory cytokines.

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition marked by permanent motor, sensory, and autonomic dysfunction, in which the inflammatory response serves an important and preventable role. High mobility group box-1 (HMGB1) is a potent regulator of inflammation in numerous acute and chronic inflammatory conditions.; however, the role of HMGB1 in SCI remains unclear. The present study aimed to characterize the temporal dynamics of HMGB1 release after SCI, to investigate the role of spinal microglia activation in mediating the effects of HMGB1 on SCI, and to explore the therapeutic potential of intrathecal anti-HMGB1 polyclonal antibody on alleviating SCI. The present study demonstrated that HMGB1 expression was increased immediately after traumatic injury of a primary spinal neuron culture. It was found that neutralizing HMGB1 significantly ameliorated SCI pathogenesis and hind limb paralysis. Moreover, the levels of a number of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the SCI lesion were reduced when local HMGB1 was blocked by anti-HMGB1 antibody. In addition, the injured neuron-derived conditioned medium increased TNF-α secretion and the NF-κB pathway in the BV2 microglia cell line via HMGB1. Collectively, these results indicated that HMGB1 served an important role in SCI inflammation and suggested the therapeutic potential of an anti-HMGB1 antibody for SCI. ©2021 Society for Leukocyte Biology.