The expression of hBD-2 induced by LPS and IL-1β in human tubular epithelial cells and its antimicrobial activity

This study designed to detect the expression of human β defensin-2(hBD-2) induced by LPS and IL-1β in the human tubular epithelial cell(HK-2)and its antimicrobial activity. HK-2 cells were stimulated with LPS at different concentrations(0.1, 1, 10 μg/ml) and IL-1β at different concentrations(0.1, 1, 10 ng/ml),respectively. 12 hours later, we detected the expression of hBD-2 mRNA in HK-2 cells by SYBR using Green fluorescent quantitative real-time PCR; hBD-2 peptide expression was also detected by Western blotting and the concentration of hBD-2 in supernatants was measured by ELISA. The antimicrobial activity of hBD-2 was assessed by colony-forming unit(CFU) assay. We found that hBD-2 mRNA could be detected in normal human tubular epithelial cells HK-2 and the expression of hBD-2 mRNA was positively related with concentration of stimulators LPS and IL-1β. The hBD-2 protein could be detected in cell supernatants and cytoplasm at 12 h after stimulation with LPS and IL-1β. At the same time, hBD-2 in supernatants showed antimicrobial activity. We concluded that LPS and pro-inflammatory factors can induce the expression of hBD-2 in a dose-dependent manner, and the expression of hBD-2 may be an initial host defense against inflammatory stimulation in renal.