Immunocompetence of human microvascular brain endothelial cells: Cytokine regulation of IL-1 β, MCP-1, IL-10. sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1

In order to investigate the tmmunocompetence of the cerebral endothelium, the endothelium from the brain of four patients undergoing neurosurgery, including one MS patient, has been studied in vitro to describe cytokine and chemokine production; the release of soluble adhesion molecules was also investigated. After isolation, the endothelium was cultured and stimulated with Y-IFN, TNF-a and LPS. The quantitation of IL-l, IL-10. sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 was made after 72 hours. The detection of mRNA for MCP-1 and IL-10 was performed after 24 hours. The same procedure was repeated on Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs) in order to detect possible district -specific differences. The results showed that brain endothelium produces lower amounts of IL-l and sICAM-1 than HUVECs, no differences were detected concerning the other proteins; mRNA for MCP-1 was present basally in HUVECs and in MSderived HBECs, but not in non-MS-derived HBECs. The low ILl release by HBECs might contribute to the condition of immunological privilege within the CNS, by making (auto)antigen presentation at the Blood-Brain-Barner level ineffective, due to inadequate delivery of co-stimulatory signals to potentially autoreactive T cells.