Down-regulation of interleukin-16 in human mast cells HMC-1 by Clostridium difficile toxins A and B.

Toxin A (TcdA) and toxin B (TcdB) are the major virulence factors of Clostridium difficile and are the causative agents for clinical symptoms, such as secretory diarrhoea and pseudomembranous colitis. Mast cells are essentially involved in the toxin-induced colonic inflammatory processes. To study the direct effects of these toxins on the expression of inflammatory genes, a DNA microarray containing evaluated probes of 90 selected inflammatory genes was applied to the immature mast cell line HMC-1.