Inhibition of proliferation of retrovirus-immortalized macrophages by LPS and IFN-gamma: possible autocrine down-regulation of cell growth by induction of IL1 and TNF.

The GG2EE macrophage tumor cell line was previously established by immortalization of C3H/HeJ mouse bone marrow cells with the J2 retrovirus which contains the v-myc and v-raf oncogenes. Studies on the control of GG2EE cell proliferation in vitro have recently been performed. We observed that the combination of 5-25 U/ml recombinant mouse interferon-gamma (rmIFN-gamma) plus 0.03-0.3 micrograms/ml lipopolysaccharide (LPS) markedly inhibited the proliferation of GG2EE cells (by greater than 95%) in vitro, while either agent alone inhibited only by less than 40% and 0-10%, respectively. Subsequent studies established that biologically active IL1-like (2-4 U/ml) and TNF alpha-like (50-100 U/ml) activities were released into the supernatants of LPS-treated GG2EE cells. The combination of IFN-gamma + LPS induced more (6-8 U/ml) IL1 release. These results suggested that the inhibition of proliferation of GG2EE cells by IFN-gamma + LPS could have been mediated in part by cytokines produced by the cells themselves. rhIL1 alpha at a concentration of 10 U/ml inhibited GG2EE proliferation by 25-30%, while rmIFN-gamma (25 U/ml) + rhIL1 alpha (10 U/ml) inhibited proliferation by 98%. Thus, 10 U/ml rhIL1 alpha could completely replace LPS in the LPS + rmIFN-gamma combination. Further, the combination of low doses of rhIL1 alpha (0.1 to 1 U/ml) plus rmTNF alpha (250 U/ml), which together inhibited proliferation by less than 20% synergized with doses of 5 to 25 U/ml rmIFN-gamma to inhibit proliferation of GG2EE cells by 98-99%. These results suggest that cytokines produced by the cells themselves can synergize with rmIFN-gamma to inhibit the oncogene-driven proliferation of GG2EE cells.