Abstract
Cholesteatoma otitis media is characterized by the accumulation of desquamating keratinized epithelium within the middle ear usually accompanied by intense bone destruction beneath the subepithelial granulation tissue. We have previously reported that surgically obtained cholesteatoma tissues (CT) produce the bone resorbing activity (BRA) attributable to interleukin (IL) -1α and prostaglandin (PG) E2 in culture. The subsequent analysis revealed the presence of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) α in CT culture supernatants, however, the amounts of TNFα were not sufficient enough to induce bone resorption in mouse calvarial assay system. The monoclonal anti-bodies to IL-1α or TNFα were added into the CT culture to investigate the interaction between IL-1α and TNFα. It was found that the anti-TNFα antibody partially reduced the production of IL-1α and BRA from CT, whereas TNFα production was blocked remarkably by anti-IL-1α antibody. These results suggest that the generated IL-1α and TNFα may act as reciprocal accelerator (s) and that its self-perpetuation relates to the bone destruction in cholesteatoma otitis media.
