Nicotine- and arecoline-induced interleukin-1 secretion and intercellular adhesion molecular-1 expression in human oral epidermoid carcinoma cells in vitro

The purpose was to examine interleukin (IL)-1 concentrations and intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 expression in nicotine/arecoline-exposed oral KB CCL17 cultures. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to quantify IL-1 concentrations in culture supernatants. A repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to identify differences among the groups. IL-1β concentrations increased by 2.6, 2.7 and 7.5 times those of the control in groups treated with 1 μM nicotine, arecoline or with both, respectively. IL-1β concentrations were more dramatically increased when the agents tested were at 100 μM concentration. Similar, although less dramatic, alterations in IL-1α concentrations were observed. The fluorescence intensity of ICAM-1 (CD54) analysed by flow cytometry was also significantly increased in a dose-dependent manner when the cells were treated with nicotine and/or arecoline. Nicotine and arecoline therefore significantly increased IL-1α and -1β secretions and the surface expression of ICAM-1 in KB CCL17 cells.