Human periodontal ligament fibroblast (HPDLF) is a major component of the resident cells in the periodontal microenvi-ronment, and plays important roles in periodontitis through multiple mechanisms. Although lipopolysaccharide (LPS) has been shown to cause endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and activate the unfolded protein response (UPR) in HPDLF, the mechanisms governing HPDLF function in periodontitis are unclear. In this study, we tested the ability of unfolded protein response (UPR) to regulate HPDLF in vitro and examined the underlying mechanisms. We found LPS-pretreated HPDLF induced macrophage polarization toward M1 phenotype. UPR activation reduced the inflammatory cytokine production and downregulated the expression of TLR4 in HPDLF. The phosphorylation of NF-kB p65 and I-kB was also inhibited by UPR activation. Our findings demonstrate that the connection of LPS, UPR, and HPDLF may represent a new concrete theory of innate immunity regulation in periodontal diseases, and suggest that targeting of UPR in HPDLF may be developed as a potent therapy for periodontitis.
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