Regulation of Chemokine Production via Oxidative Pathway in HeLa Cells

Inflammation is associated with disease progression and, by largely unknown mechanisms, has been said to drive oncogenesis. At inflamed sites, neutrophils deploy a potent antimicrobial arsenal that includes proteinases, antimicrobial peptides, and ROS. Reactive oxygen species (ROSs) induce chemokines. In the present study, the concentrations of IL-8 in culture supernatants of HeLa cells treated with ROS were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. We used o-phenanthroline to deplete Fe2+ in order to investigate the mechanisms through which ROSs induce IL-8 secretion in our system. The iron chelator o-phenanthroline effectively inhibited H2O2-induced ERK2 activation. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays showed that IL-8 protein secretion was elevated in ROS-treated HeLa cells. When Fe2+ was removed from these cells, IL-8 secretion was inhibited. Collectively, these results indicate that Fe2+-mediated Erk pathway activation is an important signal transduction pathway in ROS-induced IL-8 secretion in epithelial cells.