Rantes and IL-8 production in human conjunctival epithelial cell line

Purpose. IL-8 is known to be a chemoattractant for neutrophils, yet RANTES play an important role in recruitment of eosinophils. Our goal is to investigate production and regulation of these chemokines in conjunctival epithelium in vitro. Methods. Human conjunctival epithelial cells (Wong-Kilbourne derivative of Chang conjunctiva) were stimulated with TNF-a and/or IFN-g at several concentrations for 24 hours. Concentrations of RANTES and IL-8 in supernatants were measured by using sandwich ELISA assay. Results. Although TNF-a (10 ng/ml) or IFN-g (10 ng/ml) alone induced limited RANTES production (0.50±0.15, 0.30±0.16 ng/106cells), the combination of TNF-a and IFN-g displayed synergistic increase in RANTES production (2.75±0.65ng/106cells). On the other hand, IL-8 production was induced mainly by TNF-a (34.13±8.52 ng/106cells) and was not increased synerg-istically by TNF-a and IFN-g (38.11±15.86 ng/106cells). Conclusions. Our data suggest that human conjunctival epithelial cells can produce RANTES and IL-8 in vitro and the production of these chemokines may be regulated differently. Taken together, conjunctival epithelial cells may play a role in the recruitment of inflammatory cells into ocular surface.