Abstract: Objective To explore the influence and mechanism of IL-31 on the expression of VEGF, EGF and EGFR in 16HBE cells. Methods 16HBE cells were cultured in vitro and treated with IL-31 with or without SB203580 or SP600125, real-time PCR and Western blot were applied to determine the mRNA and protein expression of VEGF, EGF and EGFR respectively. Meanwhile, Western blot was used to examine the changes of p38 MAPK and JNK signaling pathways. Results Compared with control group, the mRNA expression of VEGF, EGF and EGFR was increased markedly under the stimulation of IL-31(P<0.01), meanwhile, the expression of pp38 MAPK and p-JNK was significantly increased (P<0.01). Compared with IL-31 group, the expression of pp38 MAPK was significantly decreased in IL-31 combined with SB203580 or SB203580 group(P<0.01), while the expression of p-JNK was markedly declined in IL-31 combined with SP600125 or SP600125 group(P<0.01).Compared with IL-31 group, the expression of VEGF was significantly decreased in IL-31 combined with SB203580 or SP600125 group (P <0.01), while the expression of EGF and EGFR was markedly declined in IL-31 combined with SB203580 group (P <0.01).Conclusions IL-31 could up-regulate the expression of VEGF through activating p38 MAPK and JNK signaling pathways and up-regulate the expression of EGF and EGFR through activating p38 MAPK signaling pathway in16HBE cells.

Key words: IL-31, 16HBE, VEGF, EGF, EGFR, p38 MAPK, JNK