Salivary egf regulates eosinophil-derived tgf-[alpha] expression in hamster oral wounds. Yang, James, Lisa W. Tyler, R. Bruce Donoff, Baizheng Song, Joe Torio, George T. Gallagher, Takanori Tsuji, Aram Elovic, Jim McBride, Chou Ming Yung, Stephen J. Galli, Peter F. Weller, and David T. W. Wong. Division of Oral Pathology, Department of Oral Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences, and Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston Massachusetts 02115; Departments of Medicine and Pathology, Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston MA 02215, and the Charles A. Dana Research Institute, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston MA 02215
APStracts 2:0212G, 1995.
Using hamster as an oral wound healing model, we examined eosinophils and their expression of transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF -[alpha]) and transforming growth factor-beta-1 (TGF-[beta]1). Oral wounds healed 2 times faster than their cutaneous counterparts. Eosinophils infiltrated prominently into oral wounds, however, unlike the dual expression of TGF-[alpha] and TGF-[beta]1 in skin wounds, oral wound-associated eosinophils expressed TGF-[beta]1, not TGF -[alpha]. Since saliva is present in oral environments and contains EGF and TGF-[alpha], sialoadenectomy was performed in this model to ask if the lack of TGF-[alpha] expression by eosinophils in oral wounds is due to the presence of salivary EGF and/or TGF-[alpha]. We found that eosinophils in sialoadenectomized hamsters did express TGF-[alpha] during oral wound healing, but that such expression was suppressed when EGF was added into their drinking water. Taken together, our findings suggest that eosinophil-derived TGF-[alpha], and salivary TGF-[alpha]/EGF, may have complementary roles in contributing TGF-[alpha] in oral wound healing.

Received 19 May 1995; accepted in final form 21 September 1995.
APS Manuscript Number G212-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Gastrointest. Liver
Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 6 November 95