Cilostazol Suppresses IL-23 Production in Human Dendritic Cells via an AMPK-Dependent Pathway

Cilostazol has been previously demonstrated to inhibit IL-23 production in human synovial macrophages via a RhoA/ROCK-dependent pathway. However, whether cilostazol affects IL-23 production in human dendritic cells remains largely unknown. The present study was designed to investigate this question and elucidate the possible underlying mechanisms.

Human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (mo-DCs) were pretreated with or without cilostazol and then incubated with zymosan. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and real time PCR analyses were used to measure IL-23 protein expression and RNA levels, respectively, whereas Western blotting was used to measure the expression and phosphorylation level of AMPK.

Our results demonstrated that cilostazol suppressed zymosan-induced IL-23 protein production in a concentration dependent manner without affecting dendritic cell viability. In addition, it was found that cilostazol suppressed the expression of the p19 and p40 subunits of IL-23. Moreover, cilostazol mimicked the effect of the AMPK agonist A-769662, as demonstrated by the fact that IL-23 production was also inhibited by A-769662, and the effect of cilostazol on IL-23 production was blocked by the AMPK antagonist Compound C. More importantly, Western blotting demonstrated that cilostazol led to an increased phosphorylation of AMPK.

Collectively, our data suggest that cilostazol inhibits the production of IL-23 in human mo-DCs, potentially via the activation of AMPK. This suggests that cilostazol could be an effective anti-inflammatory agent in IL-23- and dendritic cell-related diseases.