Pathogen induced chemo-attractant hepoxilin A3 drives neutrophils, but not eosinophils across epithelial barriers

Pathogen induced migration of neutrophils across mucosal epithelial barriers requires epithelial production of the chemotactic lipid mediator, hepoxilin A3 (HXA3). HXA3 is an eicosanoid derived from arachidonic acid. Although eosinophils are also capable of penetrating mucosal surfaces, eosinophilic infiltration occurs mainly during allergic processes whereas neutrophils dominate mucosal infection. Both neutrophils and eosinophils can respond to chemotactic gradients of certain eicosanoids, however, it is not known whether eosinophils respond to pathogen induced lipid mediators such as HXA3. In this study, neutrophils and eosinophils were isolated from human blood and placed on the basolateral side of polarized epithelial monolayers grown on permeable Transwell filters and challenged by various chemotactic gradients of distinct lipid mediators. We observed that both cell populations migrated across epithelial monolayers in response to a leukotriene B4 (LTB4) gradient, whereas only eosinophils migrated toward a prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) gradient. Interestingly, while pathogen induced neutrophil trans-epithelial migration was substantial, pathogen induced eosinophil trans-epithelial migration was not observed. Further, gradients of chemotactic lipids derived from pathogen infected epithelial cells known to be enriched for HXA3 as well as purified HXA3 drove significant numbers of neutrophils across epithelial barriers, whereas eosinophils failed to respond to these gradients. These data suggest that although the eicosanoid HXA3 serves as an important neutrophil chemo-attractant at mucosal surfaces during pathogenic infection, HXA3 does not appear to exhibit chemotactic activity toward eosinophils.