Upregulation of tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 and TNF-alpha converting enzyme during corneal wound healing.

Purpose: To elucidate tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor-1 (TNFR1) and TNF-alpha converting enzyme (TACE) involvement during corneal wound healing.

Methods: The corneas of BALB/c mice cornea were scarred by alkali burns using filter paper dipped in 1N NaOH solution. TACE and TNFR1 expression in the alkali-burned corneas were evaluated by immunohistochemistry (total, 16 eyes). Using cultured fibroblasts (human) and macrophages (mice), we evaluated the release of soluble TNF-alpha (sTNF-alpha) and soluble TNFR1 (sTNFR1) in the supernatant by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay after stimulating TACE activity with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA).

Results: In alkali-burned corneas, both TACE and TNFR1 expression were observed in the stromal cells after the acute phase of wound healing response. In macrophage-cultured supernatant, both sTNF-alpha and sTNFR1 release were promoted by PMA stimulation. On the other hand, only sTNFR1 released by PMA stimulation was observed in fibroblast-cultured supernatant.

Conclusions: TACE and TNFR1 were expressed mainly after the acute phase of corneal wound healing. The TACE-dependent extracellular release of sTNFR1 was recognized in cultured fibroblasts and macrophages.