Cytokines induced by Sendai virus in human peripheral blood leukocytes.

Human peripheral blood leukocytes (hPBL) are a rich source of natural leukocyte interferon (IFN-alpha) when treated with Sendai virus. Sendai virus treatment of hPBL will also result in significant production of several chemokines and cytokines such as macrophage inflammatory protein-1alpha (MIP-1alpha), MIP-1beta, RANTES, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and IL-8, in a time-dependent way. A significant amount of MCP-1 is constitutively produced in overnight culture of leukocytes. The most abundant cytokine is IFN-alpha, which is induced to its maximum level approximately 11-15 h after addition of Sendai virus. The amount of IFN-alpha induced at 15 h after Sendai virus treatment is more than 16-fold higher than those of MIP-1alpha, MIP-1beta, and RANTES. IFN-alpha is also induced more than 60-fold higher than TNF-alpha and IL-8. The amount of IL-6 induced is approximately 400-fold less than IFN-alpha. Limited amounts of other cytokines such as IL-1alpha, IL-1beta, macrophage colony-stimulating factor, TNF-beta, and IFN-gamma are also induced in Sendai virus-treated hPBL. No measurable amount of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, leukemia inhibitory factor, IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, IL-7, IL-10, IL-11, or IL-12 was induced in the supernatant of Sendai virus-treated hPBL.