Gene expression signatures in CD34+-progenitor-derived dendritic cells exposed to the chemical contact allergen nickel sulfate.

The detection of the sensitizing potential of chemicals is of great importance to industry. A promising in vitro alternative to the currently applied animal assays for sensitization testing makes use of dendritic cells (DCs) that have the capability to process and present antigens to naive T cells and induce their proliferation. Here, we studied changes in gene expression profiles after exposing DCs to the contact allergen nickel sulfate.

Cytokine transcript profiling in CD34+-progenitor derived dendritic cells exposed to contact allergens and irritants.

We here investigated wether genes encoding the interleukins IL-1beta, IL-6 and IL-8, and the chemokines CCL2, CCL3, CCL3L1 and CCL4 are useful markers for sensitization testing in CD34+-progenitor derived dendritic cells (CD34-DC). CD34-DC from at least three donors were exposed during 0.5 up to 24h to the chemical sensitizers nickel sulphate, oxazolone, 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) and eugenol, and to the irritants sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) and benzalkonium sulphate (BC).

Microarray analysis of the effect of diesel exhaust particles on in vitro cultured macrophages.

Diesel exhaust particles (DEP) have been reported to induce or aggravate pulmonary diseases, including cancer and asthma. Alveolar macrophages are important cellular targets for DEP and have important immunological and inflammatory properties in the response to foreign substances in the lung. In vitro cultures of human THP-1 cells were differentiated to macrophages and were exposed to 1600 ng/ml DEP during 6 and 24 h.