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IL-8 producing cells in patients with Behçet's disease
C Mantas1, H Direskeneli, D Oz
1Division of Hematology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Objective:
IL-8 is thought to be the principal chemokine responsible for neutrophil activation and tissue infiltration in patients with Behçet's disease (BD). In various studies serum levels of IL-8 were reported to be increased.
Methods:
IL-8 mRNA was purified from both peripheral whole blood samples and separated lymphocytes, granulocytes and monocytes of patients with BD and compared to that from healthy (HC) and disease controls. IL-8 sequences were revealed by PCR amplification using appropriate sequence-specific primers. mRNA levels were determined semi-quantitatively using an image analyser in comparison with beta-actin.
Results:
Although the differences did not reach statistical significance, BD patients tended to have higher IL-8 mRNA levels compared to HC in whole blood samples (2.0 +/- 1.4 vs 1.5 +/- 1.2) as well as in their lymphocytes (2.7 +/- 1.6 vs 1.5 +/- 0.9). No differences were observed between BD and HC in monocyte or granulocyte IL-8 mRNA levels.
Conclusion:
Our results suggest that the cellular source of IL-8 is diverse in BD with a possible major contribution by lymphocytes.