Background: Cytokines play an important role in chronic allergic eye disease.
Objectives: We examined how many kinds of cytokines are in giant papillae of vernal keratoconjunctivitis(VKC).
Methods: We resected giant papillae from 6 patients with VKC, and studied mRNA expression of cytokines in them with the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR). The cytokines were interleukin(IL)-1 beta, IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1 RA), IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, interferon (INF) gamma, tumor necrosis factor(TNF) alpha, TNF beta, transforming growth factor(TGF) beta 1, and TGF beta 2.
Results: In 5 cases, expression of IL-1 beta was positive. Expression of IL-1 RA, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, TGF beta 1, and TGF beta 2 was positive in 6 cases. TNF alpha was positive in 4 cases. IL-4 and INF gamma were positive in 3 cases. IL-2 and TNF beta were negative in all patients.
Conclusion: These results suggest that the Th2 cytokines play more important roles than the Th1 cytokines in VKC inflammation.