Effects of tumour necrosis factor alpha and interleukin-1 alpha and beta on human neutrophil migration, respiratory burst and degranulation.

Recombinant human tumour necrosis factor alpha (rHuTNF alpha) was shown to inhibit human neutrophil migration in the presence or absence of a chemotactic gradient generated with the tripeptide, N-formyl-L-methionyl-L-leucyl-L-phenylalanine (fMLP), at doses of 20-100 U/10(6) cells. In contrast, neither recombinant human interleukin-1 alpha (rHuIL-1 alpha), rHuIL-1 beta, human leucocyte-derived IL-1 alpha (1HuIL-1 alpha) nor 1HuIL-1 beta contained neutrophil migration inhibition properties. However, both the interleukins (1HuIL-1 alpha, 1HuIL-1 beta and rHuIL-1 alpha) and rHuTNF alpha stimulated a neutrophil respiratory burst and significantly elevated the neutrophil respiratory response to fMLP (measured as chemiluminescence and H2O2 production). The stimulatory effects were observed at doses of between 5 and 100 U/5 x 10(5) cells. A characteristic feature of the effects of the cytokines was the range of variation observed in neutrophil responses from different individuals. However, a concentration-related effect was observed with each experiment, delineating suboptimal, optimal and supra-optimal cytokine concentrations. Neutrophils treated with rHuTNF alpha and rHuIL-1 alpha and washed free of exogenous cytokine retained the capacity to show an enhanced response to fMLP. Pretreatment of cells with cytochalasin B enhanced their response to fMLP, and this response was further increased if the cells had also been pretreated with the cytokines. The response to phorbol myristate acetate was also enhanced by rHuTNF alpha and rHuIL-1 alpha. The effects of these cytokines on neutrophils could be abolished by boiling the preparation but not by treating it with polymixin B, suggesting that bacterial lipopolysaccharide was not responsible for the activity of these preparations. The rHuIL-1 alpha increased the release of lysozyme, beta-glucuronidase and myeloperoxidase initiated by cytochalasin B/fMLP, while rHuTNF alpha only increased lysozyme release.