RANTES is a pro-inflammatory chemokine and chemoattracts basophil cells to extravascular sites

RANTES (regulated upon activation normal T expressed and secreted) is another member of the intercrine β subfamily which acts as a selective chemoattractant for human monocytes and CD4-positive lymphocytes and increases the adherence of monocytes to endothelial cells. In this work, the effect of RANTES was studied on rat skin injection sites. Rats were intradermally injected with 50 μl of RANTES, at different concentrations, fMet-Leu-Phe (FMLP), or LPS (positive controls) or PBS vehicle (negative control). The animals were then injected with 0.6 ml of Evans' blue in the tail vein in order to obtain a blue colour in the areas where the compounds were injected. After 4 h the rats were killed and the maximum diameter of the blue extravasation area was measured. The coloured areas were then excised and optical and electron microscopic studies were performed. In addition, in some of the excised tissue, a Northern blot analysis for histidine decarboxylase (HDC) mRNA was performed along with an estimation of the amount of histamine generated in the tissue injection sites. In these studies it was found that intradermal injections of 5, 2.5, and 1.25 x 10-5 RANTES produced a strong inflammatory response with the accumulation of a great number of basophil cells compared with the PBS (50 μl) negative control, or FMLP (10-6 Ml50 μl) or LPS (10 ng/50 μl) positive control, after 4 h. Moreover, 5, 2.5, 1.25 x 10-5 RANTES produced a dose-response stimulation of HDC mRNA in the tissues of skin injection sites. The increasing number of basophils in the RANTES inflamed tissues led to augmentation of histamine content, compared with the PBS control. In conclusion, the pro-inflammatory chemokine RANTES stimulates the generation of HDC mRNA in skin injection sites.