RANTES augments radical oxygen products from eosinophils.

RANTES, which is released from thrombin-stimulated platelets, is a member of the 8-kD cytokine family that has been shown to possess chemotactic activity for eosinophils. Thus, in this study, we examined the effect of RANTES on radical oxygen products from eosinophils. RANTES treatment resulted in the enhancement of peak value and integrated value of productivity of eosinophil-mediated radical oxygen products determined by luminol-dependent chemiluminescence of EoL-3 cells stimulated with A23187. In addition, the radical oxygen products of EoL-1 or eosinophils showed similar results. Thus, we could conclude that platelets might play an important role in the pathogenesis of allergic inflammation through the involvement in the selective eosinophil infiltration and eosinophil activation by releasing RANTES.