Maresin 1 regulates autophagy and inflammation in human periodontal ligament cells through glycogen synthase kinase-3β/β-catenin pathway under inflammatory conditions.

OBJECTIVE

Accumulating lines of evidence suggest that maresin 1 (MaR-1) exerts anti-inflammatory effects in many cell types and plays beneficial roles in inflammatory disease, such as peritonitis and colitis. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that MaR-1 play protective roles against localized aggressive periodontitis. However, the function and mechanism of MaR-1 in human periodontal ligament cells (PDL) cells from periodontitis are poorly understood. The present study aimed to clarify the effects and molecular mechanism of MaR-1 in PDL cell survival and inflammation.

METHODS

PDL cells were isolated from the middle third of the root surface of premolars from four healthy humans; MTT assay and cell death detection ELISA assay were used to detect cell survival and apoptosis; Inflammatory cytokines level was measured by ELISA assay; RT-PCR and western blot was used to measure the mRNA and protein expression in this study.

RESULTS

Here we found that MaR-1 treatment markedly promotes survival and inhibits apoptosis in PDL cell treated by LPS. MaR-1 treatment strikingly suppressed the production of LPS-induced pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α and IL-1β. MaR-1 also promotes autophagy by increasing the ratio of LC3II/LC3I, the level of beclin-1 and reduced the expression of p62 in LPS treated PDL cells, which is beneficial to cell survival. Moreover, the results showed that MaR-1-mediated autophagy is dependent on the glycogen synthase kinase-3β(GSK-3β)/β-catenin signal pathway. The inhibitor of autophagy 3-MA and the inhibitor of the GSK-3β/β-catenin signal pathway LiCL both reverse the effects of MaR-1 on LPS-treated PDL cell survival and inflammation.

CONCLUSION

MaR-1 promotes cell survival and alleviates cell inflammation by activating GSK-3β/β-catenin-dependent autophagy. These results provide new insights into the mechanism of chronic periodontitis.