Tumoricidal effector mechanisms of murine BCG-activated macrophages: role of TNF in conjugation-dependent and conjugation-independent pathways.

The roles of secreted and membrane-associated TNFs were investigated in activated macrophage cytolysis of L929, EMT-6, and P815 targets. While all three targets were susceptible to cytolysis in coculture, an anti-TNF antiserum blocked lysis of L929 and EMT-6 but not of the P815 targets. Of the three targets, recombinant human or mouse TNF could only lyse the L929 target; despite the fact that a role for TNF was invoked in lysis of EMT-6 targets in coculture, the latter was strongly resistant to soluble rTNF, even at concentrations 30-40-fold higher than the Ka for its TNF-receptor. Cytolysis of the L929 target occurred when it was cocultured with BCG-activated macrophages even when these effector cells did not secrete TNF, either due to prior chemical crosslinking or to lack of exposure to a triggering level of lipopolysaccharide. Furthermore, by introduction of the anti-TNF antiserum over a dose-range, it was shown that macrophage cytolysis both of L929 and EMT-6 targets occurred in the absence of bioavailable, fluid-phase TNF. Thus, even for targets susceptible to fluid-phase TNF, TNF-dependent, direct macrophage-mediated cytolysis appears to be a function independent of secreted TNF and one that utilizes effector-target contact to express the action of a membrane form of the molecule.