Abstract
Purpose: :
Th17 which produce IL-17 is new effecter population involved in the progression of inflammatory disorder, such as autoimmune diseases and transplant rejection. We studied potential involvement of IL-17 in corneal allograft rejection reaction.
Methods: :
Balb/c mouse corneas were transplanted to Balb/c mice orthotopically (control group), and C3H/He mouse corneas were transplanted to Balb/c mice (rejected group). One week and four weeks after corneal transplantation, lymphocytes were obtained from periorbital lymph nodes (neck lymph nodes) of the recipient BALB/c mice, and were cultured at 2.5 x 105/well with irradiated stimulator C3H/He spleen cells (2.5 x 105/well) in 96-well culture plates with RPMI 1640 medium containing 10% FCS. For cytokine assay, supernatants were collected after 72 h and measured concentrations of IFN-γ, IL-17, IL-23, IL-6, TGF-β and IL-10 using a ELISA kit.
Results: :
Rejected group corneas were vascularized and had severe opacity, while control group corneas were clear. Although IFN-g production was higher in rejected group compare with control group, we could not detect significant difference between control group and rejected group in IL-17, TGF-b, IL-10 or IL-6 production. IL-23 was not detected in either group.
Conclusions: :
These results suggest that Th17 cells were less related to corneal allograft rejection than Th1 cells.
Keywords: cornea: basic science • transplantation • cytokines/chemokines