Sorimachi K, Akimoto K, Tsuru K, Nagashima S, Ieiri T, Niwa A
Department of Microbiology, Dokkyo University School of Medicine, Tochigi, Japan.
Cell Biol Int. 1995 Oct;19(10):833-8. doi: 10.1006/cbir.1995.1018.
Macrophages derived from rat bone marrow were treated with macrophage colony stimulating factor (M-CSF) to obtain a sufficient number of cells for the tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) assay. The present study has been designed to investigate whether the production of TNF-alpha, which induces multinucleated giant cell formation, is regulated by polyanions such as lignin derivatives. ELISA for TNF-alpha showed that the polyanion induced TNF-alpha production by macrophages. The secretion of TNF-alpha from the cells reached a maximum at 3-6 h, and then showed a slight decline. Northern blotting of TNF-alpha mRNA showed that the amount of TNF-alpha reached a maximum within 1 h of macrophage culture in the presence of a lignin derivative. On the other hand, TNF-alpha mRNA was undetectable in the control cells. It was concluded that stimuli such as that provided by lignin derivatives increases the amount of TNF-alpha mRNA, which is then followed by translation of TNF-alpha.
