Expression Of Th1/Th2 Chemokines And Their Receptors In The Lesions Of Bullous Pemphigoid

IntroductionChemokine is a class of low-molecular-weight proteins attracting leukocytes specifically, which can be divided into 4 subgroups:C, CC, CXC and CX3C. Chemokines play their roles by chemokine receptor(CR), which are expressed on their target cells'membrances. CD4+T cells includes Thl/Th2 cells. Thl cells excrete IL-2 and IFN-y. Th2 cells excrete such as IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13. Likely, CD8+T cells includes Tcl/Tc2 cells. CXCR3 and CCR5 were selectively expressed by Thl cells; CCR3, CCR4 and CCR8 were selectively expressed by Th2 cells. CXCL9/MIG, CXCL10/IP-10 and CXCL11/I-TAC were designated as type 1 chemokine or Thl chemokine, their mutual receptor is CXCR3. CCL17/TARC and CCL22/MDC were designated as type 2 chemokine or Th2 chemokine, their mutual receptor is CCR4.It was documented that type 1 and type 2 chemokines were overexpressed in the epidermal keratinocytes of inflammatory dermatoses, such as psoriasis, lichen planus and atopic dermatitis in past decade. Overexpression of chemokines in chronic dermatosis induced Th1/Th2 or Tc1/Tc2 cell infiltration. In the pathogenesis of these inflammatory dermatosis chemokines such as IFN-y and TNF-a. play important roles. IFN-y and TNF-αwere overexpressed in psoriasis, lichen planus and atopic dermatitis. My studies have shown that Thl/Th2 chemokines express differently in Thl/Th2-dominated inflammatory dermatitis. Type I chemokines predominated in psoriasis and lichen planus; Type 2 chemokines predominated in atopic dermatisis. Recently most of the studies on Th2-dominated bollous pemphigoid have focused on serological examination. The studies on expression of Thl/Th2 chemokines and their receptors in BP lesions are rarely reported. In this study, expression of Thl/Th2 chemokines and their receptors in BP lesions was detected by immunohistochemical assay. Materials and Methods1. Materials(1) Cases and samples:All patients with BP were diagnosed by clinical manifestations, pathology and direct immunofluorescence. Normal control skin samples were from plastic surgery patients.(2) Major reagents:rabbit anti-human CXCL11 polyclonal antibody (Santa Cruz, USA), goat anti-human CXCL9-11, CCL22, CXCR3 and CCR4 polyclonal antibody (Santa Cruz, USA), goat anti-rabbit streptavidin-peroxidase (SP) kits, rabbit anti-goat SP kits.2. MethodsFrozen sections (5μm) prepared from patients (n=30) with BP and normal control skin samples from plastic surgery patients (n=20) were detected by SP immunohistochemical technique for the expression of CXCL9-11, CCL22, CXCR3 and CCR4.ResultsCXCL9-11, CCL22, CXCR3 and CCR4 were overexpressed in BP lesions than those in normal control skin.ConclusionThe overexpression of Thl chemokine CXCL9-11, Th2 chemokine CCL22 and their receptors may play important roles in the pathogenesis of BP.