Effect of interleukin-1β and tumor necrosis factor-α on gene expression in human endothelial cells

Abstract

Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) are two major cytokines that rise to relatively high levels during systemic inflammation, and the endothelial cell (EC) response to these cytokines may explain some of the dysfunction that occurs. To better understand the cytokine-induced responses of EC at the gene expression level, human umbilical vein EC were exposed to IL-1β or TNF-α for various times and subjected to cDNA microarray analyses to study alterations in their mRNA expression. Of ∼4,000 genes on the microarray, expression levels of 33 and 58 genes appeared to be affected by treatment with IL-1β and TNF-α, respectively; 25 of these genes responded to both treatments. These results suggest that the effects of IL-1β and TNF-α on EC are redundant and that it may be necessary to suppress both cytokines simultaneously to ameliorate the systemic response.