Abstract
In recent studies, human basophils that were primed with interleukin-3 (IL-3) or human leukemic basophils were reported to produce IL-4. We had reported that human cord blood derived basophils cultured in the presence of IL-3 for 5 weeks were functionally and morphologicaly mature. We here report the production of IL-4 from cultured basophils, comparing with histamine release and leukotrienes production, following stimulation with anti-IgE antibody. IL-4 production was 107.2±63.2pg/106 basophils at 12800 times diluted anti-IgE whereas maximum histamine release and maximum leukotriene production were 41.4±4.5% and 8.3±3.4ng/106 basophils at 1600 times diluted anti-IgE antibody respectively. Interestingly an optimal concentration to induce IL-4 production was about 10 times lower than that to induce maximum histamine release and leukotrienes production. Kinetics of IL-4 production from the cultured basophils reached a plateau at 6 hours, which was much slower reaction than histamine or leukotrienes production from the cells. We conclude that cord blood derived cultured human basophils produce IL-4 in response to anti-IgE antibody and that the cultured human basophils are functionally mature and useful tool with which to investigate mechanisms of allergic reaction.
