Purpose: To evaluate the effect of doxycycline on the regulation of interleukin (IL)-1 expression and activity in human cultured corneal epithelium.

Methods: Human corneal limbal epithelium (HLE) was cultured from explants prepared from limbal rings of donor corneas. Primary cultured limbal epithelial cells were treated with either 10 microg/ml lipopolysaccharide (LPS), LPS with 10 microg/ml doxycycline, or LPS with 0.1 mg/ml methylprednisolone (MP) for 24 hours. The intracellular and supernatant protein amounts of IL-1alpha, the precursor and mature forms of IL-1beta, IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1 RA), and the intracellular level of IL-1beta-converting enzyme (ICE) were measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). Western blot analysis was performed to evaluate IL-1 RA protein. mRNA steady state amounts were determined by RNase protection assay (RPA) for IL-1alpha, IL-1beta, IL-1 RA, and ICE.

Results: LPS increased the mRNA and protein amounts of intracellular and released IL-1alpha, mature IL-1beta, and IL-1 RA. Doxycycline inhibited the LPS-induced IL-1beta increase in the mRNA and protein amounts in the corneal epithelium and upregulated the expression of the anti-inflammatory IL-1 RA protein. In addition, doxycycline reduced the steady state level of the cellular ICE protein but did not affect the level of ICE transcripts. IL-1beta secreted to the conditioned media of HLE was functionally active in inducing matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 and MMP-3 in cultured corneal fibroblasts. Doxycycline significantly decreased IL-1beta bioactivity in the supernatants from LPS-treated corneal epithelial cultures. These effects were comparable to those induced by the corticosteroid, MP.

Conclusions: Doxycycline can suppress the steady state amounts of mRNA and protein of IL-beta and decrease the bioactivity of this major inflammatory cytokine. These data may partially explain the clinically observed anti-inflammatory properties of doxycycline. The observation that doxycycline was equally potent as a corticosteroid, combined with the relative absence of adverse effects, makes it a potent drug for a wide spectrum of ocular surface inflammatory diseases.