IL-17 selectively down-regulates TNF-α-induced RANTES gene expression in human colonic subepithelial myofibroblasts

IL-17 enhances the TNF-alpha-induced IL-6 and IL-8 secretion in human colonic subepithelial myofibroblasts. In this study, we investigated how IL-17 modulates RANTES secretion in these cells. TNF-alpha potently induced RANTES secretion, but IL-17 dose-dependently inhibited the TNF-alpha-induced RANTES secretion. This was also observed at the mRNA level. Even after pretreatment with TNF-alpha for 12 h, the inhibitory effect of IL-17 was detectable. IL-17 did not affect the TNF-alpha-induced stability of the RANTES gene. IL-17 significantly decreased the TNF-alpha-induced increase in RANTES promoter activity, and IL-17 actually blocked the TNF-alpha-induced RANTES gene transcription. EMSAs demonstrated that IL-17 did not modulate the TNF-alpha-induced NF-kappaB DNA-binding activity, but markedly decreased TNF-alpha-induced IFN regulatory factor-1 (IRF-1) DNA-binding activity. Because cooperation between NF-kappaB and IRF-1 is important in the TNF-alpha-induced RANTES gene expression, the major mechanism mediating the inhibitory effect of IL-17 may be achieved by the inhibition of IRF-1 DNA-binding activity.