Interleukin-10 is a potent inhibitor of tumor cytotoxicity by human monocytes and alveolar macrophages.

The effects of purified human interleukin-10 (IL-10) on the expression of antitumor activity of human monocytes and alveolar macrophages (AMs) obtained by centrifugal elutriation and bronchoalveolar lavage, respectively, from the same healthy donors were examined. Monocytes and AMs were incubated for 16 h in medium with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the presence or absence of IL-10 or IL-4, and then their tumoricidal activity was assayed by measuring 125I-IUdR release from human melanoma (A375) cells. Addition of IL-10 to cultures of monocytes or AMs with LPS resulted in dose-dependent suppression of their cytotoxicity against A375 cells, the suppression of the activity of monocytes being the higher. IL-10 also suppressed the synergistic effects of interferon-gamma and desmethyl muramyldipeptide in activation of monocytes. IL-10 inhibited the early induction phase of monocyte activation but not the effector phase (monocyte-mediated cytotoxicity). IL-10 plus IL-4 inhibited the antitumor activities of AMs and monocytes much more than either IL-10 or IL-4 alone. IL-10 and IL-4 at suboptimal concentrations also showed synergistic inhibitory effects. These findings suggest that IL-10 may be important in vivo in down-regulating the antitumor activities of monocytes and AMs in the lung by inhibiting their productions of antitumor effector molecules.