Anti-inflammatory effects of resolvin-D1 on human corneal epithelial cells: in vitro study

Background: this study evaluated the anti-inflammatory effects of resolvin-d1 (rv-d1) and its mechanism of action in human corneal epithelial (hce) cells. methods. hce cells were incubated with different concentrations of rv-d1 for different time periods. oleic acid (oa) and dexamethasone (dm) served as negative and positive controls,respectively. cells were stimulated with polyriboinosinic:polyribocytidylic acids (poly i:c). the protein contents and mrna expression levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (tnf-α),interleukin (il)-6,il-1β and il-8 were evaluated with multiplex fluorescent bead immunoassay (fbi) and real time-pcr,respectively. in addition,the expression of inhibitory factor-κbα (i-κbα) was evaluated with real time-pcr. results: the protein level of pro-inflammatory cytokines tnf-α,il-6,il-1β and il-8 significantly increased after stimulation with poly i:c. rv-d1 treatment at concentration of 1 μm decreased the protein level of tnf-α to 20.76 ± 9.3% (p < 0.05),il-6 to 43.54 ± 14.16% (p < 0.001),il-1β to 46.73 ± 15.93% (p > 0.05) and il-8 to 51.15 ± 13.01% (p < 0.05) compared with cells stimulated with poly i:c alone. similarly,the mrna levels of tnf-α,il-6,il-1β and il-8 were significantly reduced after treatment with rv-d1. a highly significant dose response curve was demonstrated for rv-d1 treated hce cells for tnf-α and il-1β.dm treatment decreased the protein content for all of the pro-inflammatory cytokines,similar results were demonstrated at the mrna level. the anti-inflammatory effects of rv-d1 were similar to those of dm for tnf-α,il-6 and il-8. conclusions: rv-d1 may serve as a potent anti-inflammatory agent in ocular surface inflammation,as evaluated in cultured hce cells. the anti-inflammatory effects of rv-d1 were comparable to those of dm,and were mediated through nuclear factor kappa b (nf-κb) signal transduction. © 2014 erdinest et al.; licensee biomed central ltd.