Background: Calcium channel blockers are widely used in transplantation. Their immunosuppressive activity is well known and has been demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo. Nevertheless, their effect on cytokine production has never been reported.
Methods: One-way mixed lymphocyte cultures (MLCs) have been obtained from healthy human subjects. Cytokine production has been assessed by three different methods: by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay on supernatants of MLC, by enzyme-linked immunospot method on MLC cells for measuring cytokine-producing cells, and by the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction technique on MLC cells for measuring cytokine mRNAs.
Results: An interesting effect on proinflammatory monokines was observed: in this study, we demonstrate that the calcium antagonist diltiazem enhances interleukin-1beta and slightly reduces interleukin-6 production in MLC, but it has no effect on tumor necrosis factor-alpha levels.
Conclusion: For the first time, a modulation of monokine production by diltiazem can be demonstrated. This evidence suggests that calcium antagonist drugs may exert effects on monocytes and possibly on other antigen-presenting cells.