C3A binds to the seven transmembrane anaphylatoxin receptor expressed by epithelial cells and triggers the production of IL-8

The complement (C) plays an important role in many acute inflammatory proce sses. C3a is an inflammatory polypeptide named anaphylatoxin, generated dur ing C activation and which acts through a specific receptor C3aR. In this s tudy, me demonstrated that the epithelial cell line ECV 304 constitutively expressed C3aR (by flow cytometry and immunofluorescence) and that binding of purified C3a to epithelial cells resulted in a time- and dose-dependent upregulation of interleukin-8 (IL-8). Pre-treatment of ECV 304 with pertuss is toxin inhibited IL-8 response induced by C3a, indicating that the action of C3a was mediated by a G protein coupled pathway. (C) 2001 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rig hts reserved.