Cyto kinc production by epiclerma l keratinocytes has been investiga ted ext ensive ly cluring the past decacle in the skm Furthermore‘ cyto kines produced by pidermal kerat inocytes may be regar decl as important regulators in inflammation, 1 nunune responses‘ and during wound healing, The associa tion of specific cytokine patterns in proliferative a ncl/or infl ammatory related cha nges in the s kin suggests a role in the pathogenesis of certain skin diseases, Although it is conceiva b1e that the pa ttern of cytokine express ion in o1'al kera tinocytes might be sirnilar t o tha t of epidermal origin, the1'e a re only sparse reports that have s hown t his experi menta lly, In addition, there is s ome evidence that there may be differe n ces in the proliferative capacity of oral versus epidermal keratinocytes, Since t his may be crucial for better un clerstanding the biologica l processes in the oral mucosa and how they may differ from the e pidennis, we a na lyzed the cyto kine expression pat tern of human oral kera tinocy tes, The purpose of this study were to investigate mRNA & protein express ion 0 1' va rious cy tokines between NHOK and NHEK by RT-PCR & immunoslot blotting, and to apply its results 1‘0 1' bet ter understancling t he pathological processes in the o1'al mucosal d1seases Cultured NHEK showecl larger a rea of cel lula r s tratil'icat ion tha n cul tu ++ 1'ed NHOK in 0 05mM Ca concentra tion, 1L - 1α , IL- 6 mRNA expression 0 1' cult ured NHOK we1'e hi gher than that of NHEK, TNF- mRNA expression of NHEK was about 1, 2 folds than that 0 1' NHOK, ICAM- 1 mRNA expression of NHOK was a bout 13 folds t han that of NHOK, while NHEK was weakly detected, 1L- 1a , IL-6 pro tein expression of cul tured NHOK were hi gher t han t ha t of NHEK TNF-a protein expression of NHEK was about 1, 2 fo lds than that of NHOK, 1CAM- 1 protein expression of NHOK was about 40 folcls than that of NHOK, whil e NHEK was weakly detectecl , mRNA express ion was associa ted wi th prot ein expression in cul tured NHOK ancl NHEK, It s uggestecl that lL- 1a ‘ 11-6 and ICAM-1 mRNA and protein be highl y expressecl in cultured NHOK, Especially, ICAM- 1 would be a useful ma rker for the pathogenesis of oral mucosal di sease,