Chemokine gene expression in human oral mucosa

In order to gain further understanding of the role of chemokines in healthy oral mucosa, we analyzed mRNA expression of the alpha (CXC)-family chemoki nes IL-8 and GRO gamma as well as of the beta (CC)-family chemokines MIP-1 alpha, MIP-1 beta and MCP-1 in twenty young and healthy subjects with good oral hygiene. Twenty biopsies were taken from clinically healthy oral mucos a before surgical removal of impacted wisdom teeth. In addition, live biops ies from patients presenting with specific oral lesions were studied. RNA w as purified, quantitated and utilized as substrate for competitive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). In healthy tissue, IL-8 a nd MCP-1 mRNA was constitutively expressed in all biopsies, whereas GRO gam ma, MIP-1 alpha, and MIP-1 beta were significantly lower. These findings su ggest that IL-8 and MCP-1 play a significant role in oral tissue homeostasi s. The few samples from pathological conditions encourage exploring disease d tissue in more detail.