Regulation of interleukin-18 (IL-18) expression in keratinocytes (HaCaT): implications for early wound healing

Keratinocytes display a high basal level expression of IL-18. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) mediated a large decrease in IL-18 mRNA levels in the human keratinocyte cell line HaCaT, which was accompanied by a subsequent accumulation of IL-18 protein in the cell culture supernatants, which was shown to be biologically active. By contrast, epidermal growth factor (EGF) and transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-alpha), respectively, strongly decreased IL-18 mRNA expression in HaCaT keratinocytes in the absence of IL-18 protein release from the cells. Notably, a pre-treatment of the cells with EGF, or TGF-alpha clearly attenuated TNF-alpha-induced IL-18 protein, release and bioactivity. For the in vivo situation of cutaneous wound repair, we observed an increase in IL-18 protein, 10 hours post-wounding, that closely correlated to infiltration of neutrophils which are known as producers of TNF-alpha. Our data suggest that bioactive IL-18 might be tightly counter-regulated by platelet- and neutrophil-derived factors at the onset of repair.