Expression of C-C chemokines in bronchoalveolar lavage cells from patients with granulomatous lung diseases.

To determine the role of C-C chemokines in the pathogenesis of granulomatous lung diseases, we studied the mRNA levels of C-C chemokines, regulated on activation normal T expressed and secreted (RANTES), macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1alpha, MIP-1beta, and monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cells obtained from patients with sarcoidosis (n = 17), hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) (n = 4), and cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis (CFA) (n = 10) using the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique. The mRNA levels of RANTES, MIP-1alpha, and MIP-1beta in BAL cells were significantly correlated with the lavaged lymphocyte proportion, and a significant inverse correlation was observed between the mRNA level of MIP-1beta and the CD4/CD8 ratio of lavaged lymphocytes. Among the three diseases, the mRNA levels of RANTES and MIP-1alpha were significantly higher in the patients with sarcoidosis or HP compared with those in the patients with CFA. The level of MIP-1beta mRNA was significantly higher in the HP patients compared with that in the patients with sarcoidosis or CFA. No significant differences were observed in the level of MCP-1 mRNA among the three diseases. Thus, RANTES and MIP-1alpha were suggested to be important in the pathogenesis of granulomatous inflammation in sarcoidosis and HP. MIP-1beta might play an important role in the pathogenesis of HP, mediating the recruitment of lymphocytes specific to HP.