Cytokine gene expression in atopic dermatits

Research Project

Project/Area Number	06670870
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Dermatology
Research Institution	Nagasaki University
Principal Investigator	TANAKA Yoichi Nagasaki University, School of Medicine, Lecturer, 医学部, 講師 (20231417)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	YAMAMOTO Kenshi Nagasaki University, School of Medicine, Assistant, 医学部, 助手 (90240093) 吉田彦太郎長崎大学, 医学部, 教授 (20033045)
Project Period (FY)	1994 – 1995
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1995)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,200,000) Fiscal Year 1995: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000) Fiscal Year 1994: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Keywords	atopic dermatitis / Th1 / Th2 / IL-4 / IFN-gamma / in situ hybridization / Th1 / Th2 / ダニパッチテスト / エレ-4
Research Abstract	To date, a number of findings suggesting a predominance of type 2 helper T cell (Th2) have been reported in atopic dermatitis (AD). On the other hand, a predominance of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) messenger RNA (mRNA) expression was recently demonstrated by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in the lesions of AD.To address the controversial issue, we investigated both transcription and translation of interleukin-4 (IL-4) and IFN-gamma in the lesions of five AD patients by in situ hybridization (ISH) and immunostaining. In mRNA and protein level, coexpression of IL-4 and IFN-gamma was observed. The number of IFN-gamma mRNA-positive cells (14.0<plus-minus>6.7) was significantly higher than that of IL-4 mRNA-positive cells (2.4<plus-minus>1.1) (p=0.04). The number of positive staining cells of IFN-gamma (6.3<plus-minus>2.8) were also significantly higher than that of IL-4 (1.8<plus-minus>1.2) (p=0.04). However, the number of IL-4 mRNA-positive cells tended to correlate with the AD severity (r=0.76, p=0.13), suggesting an important role of IL-4 in the pathogenesi