Vanadium compounds are promising anti-diabetic agents. However, the underlying mechanisms have not been fully elucidated. Inflammation and auto-immune disorders play important roles in the progresses of both type Ⅰ and type Ⅱ diabetes, in which heat shock protein 60 （HSP60） is an important endogenous inflammatory mediator. In the present work, we investigated the effects of vanadium compounds （vanadyl sulfate and sodium metavanadate） on the IL-6 production in RAW264.7 cells upon HSP60 stimulation. Our data revealed that both vanadyl ions regulated the IL-6 expression in a concentration-dependent manner. However, the two common NF-κB and PPAR-γ, signal pathways were not involved in this process. Further works are needed to elucidate the underlying mechanism and significance of the immuno-modification actions for the pharmacological applications of anti-diabetic vanadium compounds.
