Cytotoxicity of human mononuclear cells against chicken and human red blood cells, induced by treatment of the effector cells with phospholipase C.

Human mononuclear cells from peripheral blood which were treated with phospholipase C (PLC), became cytotoxic against human or chicken red blood cells. PLC-induced cellular cytotoxicity against human red blood cells was further analyzed and compared to anti-D-mediated, antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), using the same target cells. ADCC, but not cytotoxicity of PLC-treated effector cells, was inhibited by free IgG. In addition, iodoacetate strongly enhanced PLC-induced cytotoxicity, but blocked ADCC completely. Addition of fetal calf serum or human AB serum impaired PLC-induced cytotoxicity. A similar inhibition was found by adding lecithin liposomes suggesting that the inhibitory effect of sera was also due to their phospholipid content. The data show that cytotoxicity of PLC-treated effector cells can be clearly distinguished from cellular cytotoxicity, occurring spontaneously or induced by target cell antibodies. We favor the notion that cytotoxicity of PLC-treated effector cells against human erythrocytes is due to the action of PLC, adsorbed to the effector cells.