Effects of bradykinin and bradykinin analogues on spleen cells of mice.

The present study was undertaken to examine the effects of bradykinin and selected bradykinin analogues on mononuclear cells derived from mouse spleen. Bradykinin as well as des-Arg9-bradykinin, a bradykinin B1 receptor agonist, were able to induce the release of so-called charge-changing lymphokines, which could be identified as interleukin-1, interleukin-6, interleukin-2 and as interleukin-2 receptor. The cytokine release evoked by bradykinin and all analogues showed a bell-shaped dose dependence in a range of 10(-8) M to 10(-6) M and could be inhibited by the specific bradykinin receptor antagonist, D-Arg0[Hyp3,Thi5,D-Tic7,Oic8]bradykinin (HOE140), and by bradykinin analogues with N-methyl-phenylalanine at position 2 in concentrations as low as 10(-12) M and 10(-13) M, respectively. Obviously the N-terminus of bradykinin seems to be responsible for the interaction with the mononuclear cells concerning all peptides investigated.