Hepatocyte growth factor inhibits lipopolysaccharide-induced oxidative stress via epithelial growth factor receptor degradation.

Objective: Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) triggers sepsis and systemic inflammatory response syndrome, which results in multiple organ failure. Our recent reports demonstrated that hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) attenuated angiotensin II-induced oxidative stress via epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR) degradation in vascular smooth muscle cells. Here, we examined whether HGF can protect against systemic inflammatory response syndrome induced by LPS and investigated the mechanism.

Methods And Results: HGF inhibited the increase in the expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 and EGFR by LPS in vitro. HGF inhibited colocalization of EGFR and Src homology domain 2-containing inositol 5'-phosphatase 2. Furthermore, HGF inhibited reactive oxygen species production. We also injected LPS into HGF transgenic mice with increased HGF serum concentration and their littermates. HGF transgenic mice reduced LPS-induced vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 and reactive oxygen species compared with control, accompanied by significant EGFR degradation. Furthermore, HGF transgenic mice significantly improved survival in the LPS injection model.

Conclusions: The present study revealed inhibition of LPS-induced vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 expression by HGF via the degradation of EGFR. We demonstrated that HGF regulated Src homology domain 2-containing inositol 5'-phosphatase 2 recruitment to EGFR and inhibited LPS-induced inflammation via EGFR degradation. This effect of HGF may be useful for the treatment of inflammatory disease.