Signaling of High Mobility Group Box 1 (HMGB1) through Toll-like Receptor 4 in Macrophages Requires CD14

“…TLR4, as a member of the TLR family, also recognizes multiple endogenous damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) such as HMGB1, heat shock proteins (HSPs), etc., which are released after cellular stress or injury and can drive sterile inflammatory responses [36,37,38,39]. TLR4 activation by bacterial LPS involves the formation of a signaling complex, and HMGB1 displays TLR4-dependent activity [34]. The results of our study showed significant increases of HMGB1 and TLR4 (mRNA and protein) expression in cells exposed to LPS, indicating that LPS activates TLR4 and HMGB1.…”