Systemic overexpression of IFN-gamma and IL-5 exacerbates early phase reaction and conjunctival eosinophilia, respectively, in experimental allergic conjunctivitis.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate how systemic overexpression of IL-4, IL-5 and IFN-gamma affects the severity of experimental conjunctivitis (EC) in mice.


METHODS
The tibialis anterior muscle of naive BALB/c mice was electroporated with IL-4, IL-5, IFN-gamma or a control gene, and then the mice blood and conjunctivas were harvested to measure the eosinophil content in these tissues. To evaluate the effects of cytokine gene electroporation on the early-phase reaction (EPR), cytokine gene-electroporated ragweed (RW)-immunised mice were intravenously injected with Evans Blue (EB) and then challenged with RW in eye-drops. Thirty minutes later, their conjunctivas were harvested to extract EB and evaluate the EPR. Additionally, 24 h after RW challenge, conjunctivas were harvested from cytokine gene-electroporated RW-immunised mice, which had not received intravenous injection of EB, to measure conjunctival eosinophilia.


RESULTS
Significantly more eosinophils were detected in the blood and conjunctivas of IL-5-electroporated mice in which EC was not induced. The intensity of the EPR was significantly greater in IFN-gamma-electroporated mice. Significantly greater eosinophil infiltration was seen in the conjunctivas of IL-5-electroporated EC-developing mice.


CONCLUSIONS
It appears that systemic IL-5 and IFN-gamma play different roles in the development of EC.
Ishida
W
W
Department of Ophthalmology, Kochi Medical School, Kochi, Japan.
Tsuru
E
E
Tominaga
A
A
Miyazaki
J-I
JI
Higuchi
T
T
Sakamoto
S
S
Fukushima
A
A
D031164:Ambrosia / Q000276:immunology; D000818:Animals; D003228:Conjunctiva / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D003233:Conjunctivitis, Allergic / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D018274:Electroporation / Q000379:methods; D004802:Eosinophilia / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D015848:Interleukin-5 / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods
D015848:Interleukin-5; D015847:Interleukin-4; D007371:Interferon-gamma