Background Haptoglobin(Hp)is one of the acute-phase proteins. Recent studies have demonstrated that Hp exerts immunoregulatory and anti-inflammatory actions and may be one of the inhibitory factors of immune reactions in the skin. In this study we investigated the regulation of Hp expression in a human keratinocyte cell line HaCaT by various cytokines and glucocorticod. Methods HaCaT cells were cultured with IL-6(50 ng/ml), TNF-α(20 ng/ml), IFN-Y(20 ng/ml)or IL-4(20 ng/ml)with or without 1 μmol/L dexamethasone in 6-well plates for 12, 24 and 48 hours. Both the cells and the supatants were collected to detect the changes of Hp expression by reverse-transcription PCR, ELISA and immunohistochemistry. Results The results showed that Hp expression were elevated at both the mRNA and protein level by the combination of IL-6, TNF-α or IL-4 with dexamethasone, whereas the three cytokines alone did not upregulate the Hp expression. IFN-Y showed no effect on the Hp expression in HaCaT cells. Conclusions These findings suggest that different inflammatory cytokines as well as glucocorticoid may be involved in the regulation of Hp expression in keratinocytes, and this may be one of the negative feedback mechanisms in inflammatory skin diseases.