Macleod J D, Anderson D F, Baddeley S M, Holgate S T, McGill J I, Roche W R
Southampton Eye Unit, Southampton General Hospital, UK.
Clin Exp Allergy. 1997 Nov;27(11):1328-34.
Recently, the potential role of mast cells in allergic reactions has been extended by the discovery that these cells synthesize, store and secrete multifunctional cytokines. Seasonal allergic conjunctivitis is characterized as an immediate hypersensitivity reaction, in which allergen binds to specific IgE on mast cells, leading to release of pre-formed and newly synthesized inflammatory mediators.
In this study we aimed to localize the cytokines IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8 and TNF alpha to conjunctival mast cells and to examine the relationship between mast cell-associated cytokines and allergic conjunctivitis.
Immunohistochemistry was performed on serial sections of conjunctival biopsies from patients with seasonal allergic conjunctivitis, in and out of the hay fever season, as well as from non-allergic volunteers.
IL-4, IL-5, IL-6 and TNF alpha were localized to mast cells in normal and allergic conjunctiva. IL-8 was localized to mast cells in two patients with seasonal allergic conjunctivitis, one during and the other outside the pollen season. Using the monoclonal antibody 3H4, which identifies the secreted form of IL-4, biopsies from patients with active seasonal allergic conjunctivitis contained a significantly higher proportion of mast cells positive for IL-4, than those from out-of-season patients (P=<0.016). There was no difference between the two groups in the number of mast cells immunostained by the antibody 4D9 which identifies the stored form of IL-4.
These results suggest that conjunctival mast cells can store a range of multifunctional cytokines and release IL-4 during active disease, which may give them an important role in upregulating allergic inflammation in the conjunctiva.
最近，肥大细胞在过敏反应中的潜在作用因发现这些细胞能合成、储存和分泌多功能细胞因子而得到扩展。季节性变应性结膜炎的特征为速发型超敏反应，在此反应中，变应原与肥大细胞上的特异性IgE结合，导致预先形成的和新合成的炎症介质释放。
在本研究中，我们旨在将细胞因子IL-4、IL-5、IL-6、IL-8和肿瘤坏死因子α定位于结膜肥大细胞，并研究肥大细胞相关细胞因子与变应性结膜炎之间的关系。
对季节性变应性结膜炎患者在花粉症季节期间及非花粉症季节的结膜活检连续切片进行免疫组织化学检查，同时也对非变应性志愿者的结膜活检连续切片进行免疫组织化学检查。
IL-4、IL-5、IL-6和肿瘤坏死因子α定位于正常和变应性结膜的肥大细胞。在两名季节性变应性结膜炎患者中，IL-8定位于肥大细胞，其中一名患者在花粉季节，另一名患者在非花粉季节。使用识别IL-4分泌形式的单克隆抗体3H4，活动性季节性变应性结膜炎患者的活检组织中，IL-4阳性的肥大细胞比例显著高于非花粉症季节患者（P =<0.016）。识别IL-4储存形式的抗体4D9免疫染色的肥大细胞数量在两组之间没有差异。
这些结果表明，结膜肥大细胞可以储存一系列多功能细胞因子，并在疾病活动期释放IL-4，这可能使它们在结膜过敏性炎症的上调中发挥重要作用。
