MEASUREMENT OF ANTIINFLAMMATORY EFFECTS OF GLUCOCORTICOIDS ON HUMAN KERATINOCYTES IN-VITRO - COMPARISON OF NORMAL HUMAN KERATINOCYTES WITH THE KERATINOCYTE CELL-LINE HACAT

There are only few objective in vitro methods available for the testin g of anti-inflammatory pharmaceutical products. One possibility is in the stimulation of cytokine production in cultivated human keratinocyt es by UV light and the subsequent testing of suppressing activities Fr om the dermatological aspect the interleukins 6 and 8 are especially i nteresting because they are elevated in psoriatic skin. In the present work three glucocorticoids were tested in cultures of normal human ke ratinocytes and in the permanent keratinocyte cell line HaCaT. Both ce ll species produced IL-6 and IL-8 spontaneously. albeit in very small amounts. After UV irradiation the interleukin production increased in a dose dependent manner. The IL-6 and IL-8 induction could be suppress ed by each of the glucocorticoids tested. The thymidine incorporation rate of the cells was not affected by the glucocorticoids indicating t hat the observed suppression of cytokine induction was not the result of a generalised cell damage. The response of both HaCaT keratinocytes and primary human keratinocytes to UV irradiation and glucocorticoid application was similar indicating the possible use of the generally a vailable HaCaT cells for the pharmacological testing of anti-inflammat ory activities in vitro.