LincRNA-EPS alleviates severe acute pancreatitis by suppressing HMGB1-triggered inflammation in pancreatic macrophages

Acute pancreatitis (AP), an inflammatory disorder of the pancreas with a high hospitalization rate, frequently leads to systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). However, therapeutic targets for effective treatment and early intervention of AP are still urgently required to be identified. Here, we have observed that the expression of pancreatic lincRNA-EPS, a long intergenic non-coding RNA, is dynamically changed during both caerulein-induced AP (Cer-AP) and sodium taurocholate-induced severe AP (NaTc-SAP). The expression pattern of lincRNA-EPS is negatively correlated with the typical inflammatory genes such as IL-6, IL-1 beta, CXCL1, and CXCL2. Further studies indicate that knockout of lincRNA-EPS aggravates the pathological symptoms of AP including more induction of serum amylase and lipase, severe edema, inflammatory cells infiltration and acinar necrosis in both experimental AP mouse models. Besides these intrapancreatic effects, lincRNA-EPS also protects against tissue damages in the extra-pancreatic organs such as lung, liver, and gut in the NaTc-SAP mouse model. In addition, we have observed more serum pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-alpha and IL-6 in the lincRNA-EPS-/- NaTc-SAP mice and more extracellular HMGB1 around injured acinar cells in the pancreas from lincRNA-EPS-/- NaTc-SAP mice, compared with their respective controls. Pharmacological inhibition of NF-kappa B activity by BAY11-7082 significantly abolishes the suppressive effect of lincRNA-EPS on TLR4 ligand-induced inflammatory genes in macrophages. Our study has described a protective role of lincRNA-EPS in alleviating AP and SAP, outlined a novel pathway that lincRNA-EPS suppresses HMGB1-NF-kappa B-dependent inflammatory response in pancreatic macrophages and provided a potential therapeutic target for SAP.