INVIVO AND INVITRO ASSESSMENT OF THE ROLE OF LEUKOTRIENE B4 AS A MEDIATOR OF RAT CUTANEOUS LATE-PHASE REACTIONS

Mast cell-dependent late-phase reactions (LPR) occur in rat skin and are characterized histologically by an early (1 to 8 hours) neutrophil-rich infiltrate, which is essential to a later (24 hours) infiltration by mononuclear cells. Although the ability of preformed mast cell-granule constituents alone to elicit LPR is clearly established, the relative pathogenetic contributions of newly generated lipid mediators to rat LPR are unknown. Leukotriene B4 (LTB4) may be generated by stimulated mast cells in a number of species and might potentially contribute to the neutrophil ingress. In order to examine this possibility in a well-characterized animal model of LPR, the capacity of LTB4 to influence rat cutaneous inflammation was studied. LTB4 (0.1 to 100 ng) alone did not induce vasopermeability in rat skin nor potentiate the blueing response to histamine. Intracutaneous LTB4 (0.1 to 100 ng) did not cause significant infiltration of neutrophils 3 to 4, 6 to 8, or 24 hours after injection; increased numbers of mononuclear leukocytes were not appreciated through 24 hours. In the same animals intracutaneous anti-IgE and intact mast cell granules both produced intense biphasic infiltration characteristic of rat LPR. In order to examine if rat polymorphonuclear leukocytes were capable of responding to LTB4, several in vitro studies were performed. Rat peritoneal and peripheral blood neutrophils migrated toward formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenyl-alanine in vitro but not to purified human or synthetic LTB4. Rat peripheral blood and elicited peritoneal neutrophils bound only 32% and 27%, respectively, of the quantity of [3H]LTB4 bound by human neutrophils. Thus, LTB4 does not cause vasopermeability or elicit inflammatory reactions in the rat and does not appear to be a major mediator of the pathogenesis of rat cutaneous LPR. Moreover, LTB4 fails to evoke rat neutrophil chemotaxis in vitro, possibly as a result of limited expression of specific receptors for LTB4 in this species. Although these data do not necessarily extend to other species, they clearly indicate that mast cell mediators other than LTB4 are responsible for rat LPR and suggest that these same mediators may play an important role in the pathogenesis of human LPR as well.