Campelo Simone R, da Silva Moises B, Vieira José Lf, da Silva Jorge P, Salgado Claudio G
Dermato-Immunology Laboratory, Federal University of Pará, Dr Marcello Candia Reference Unit in Sanitary Dermatology of the State of Pará, Marituba, PA, Brazil.
BMC Res Notes. 2011 Jan 28;4:24. doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-4-24.
Langerhans cells constitute a special subset of immature dendritic cells localized in the epidermis that play a key role in the skin's immune response. The production of cytokines is a key event in both the initiation and the regulation of immune responses, and different drugs can be used to remove or modify their production by DC and, therefore, alter immune responses in a broad spectrum of diseases, mainly in human inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. In the present study, we examined the effects of prednisone, thalidomide, cyclosporine A, and amitriptyline, drugs used in a variety of clinical conditions, on the production of TNF-α, IL-10, and IL-12 by purified epidermal Langerhans cells and peritoneal macrophages in BALB/c mice.
All drugs inhibited TNF-α production by Langerhans cells after 36 hours of treatment at two different concentrations, while prednisone and thalidomide decreased IL-12 secretion significantly, amitriptyline caused a less pronounced reduction and cyclosporine A had no effect. Additionally, TNF-α and IL-12 production by macrophages decreased, but IL-10 levels were unchanged after all treatments.
Our results demonstrate that these drugs modulate the immune response by regulating pro-inflammatory cytokine production by purified epidermal Langerhans cells and peritoneal macrophages, indicating that these cells are important targets for immunosuppression in various clinical settings.
朗格汉斯细胞是位于表皮的未成熟树突状细胞的一个特殊亚群，在皮肤免疫反应中起关键作用。细胞因子的产生是免疫反应启动和调节中的关键事件，不同药物可用于去除或改变树突状细胞对其的产生，从而在广泛的疾病中，主要是在人类炎症性和自身免疫性疾病中改变免疫反应。在本研究中，我们检测了泼尼松、沙利度胺、环孢素A和阿米替林（这些在多种临床情况下使用的药物）对BALB/c小鼠纯化的表皮朗格汉斯细胞和腹腔巨噬细胞产生肿瘤坏死因子-α（TNF-α）、白细胞介素-10（IL-10）和白细胞介素-12（IL-12）的影响。
在两种不同浓度下处理36小时后，所有药物均抑制朗格汉斯细胞产生TNF-α，而泼尼松和沙利度胺显著降低IL-12分泌，阿米替林的降低作用不太明显，环孢素A则无作用。此外，巨噬细胞产生TNF-α和IL-12减少，但所有处理后IL-10水平未变。
我们的结果表明，这些药物通过调节纯化的表皮朗格汉斯细胞和腹腔巨噬细胞产生促炎细胞因子来调节免疫反应，表明这些细胞是各种临床环境中免疫抑制的重要靶点。
