Differential secretion of chemokines from peripheral blood in pregnant compared with non-pregnant women

The maintenance of a normal pregnancy is dependent on the delicate interaction between the endocrine and the immune systems. Cytokines are thought to play a key role in pregnancy by way of local modulation of the immune system at the level of peripheral leukocytes. This study examined the potential of peripheral venous blood cultures from pregnant women throughout gestation and from non-pregnant women to produce the chemokines monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and RANTES. Significantly (P = < 0.001), higher levels of MCP-1 were released from peripheral blood cultures from pregnant women at term than during the first trimester or from women who were not pregnant. This could not be accounted for by differences in differential blood counts. Significantly higher levels (P = < 0.05) of MCP-1 were released from PBMC preparations from pregnant compared with non-pregnant women. No 'rebound' increase in MCP-1 was observed on withdrawing progesterone support to the PBMC preparations. MCP-1 was secreted predominately from CD14+ cells with those from pregnant women producing more than those from non-pregnant women. There was no statistical difference in release of IL-8 or RANTES from either peripheral blood or PBMC preparations from pregnant or non-pregnant women. IL-8 and RANTES were secreted from CD14+ and CD14- cells, respectively. The hypothesis proposed is that the monocytes are fundamentally different in pregnancy and that measurement of MCP-1 has the potential to act as a marker of pregnancy status.

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin potentiates monocyte responses to lipopolysaccharide-induced tumor necrosis factor and interleukin-1, but not interleukin-6 in bladder cancer patients

During the past decade, particular attention has been focused on treatment of bladder cancer patients with the bacterial agent bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). In these studies, bladder cancer patients were instilled with BCG (75 mg/50 ml) once per week for 6 weeks, 1-2 weeks following trans-urethral resection of the bladder. Cystoscopy was performed after 6 weeks and, unless tumor progression was present, monthly treatments were given for 1 year. Blood was drawn 2 h after the last instillation, and monocytes were isolated (5 x 10(6) cells/ml) and treated, or not, with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (20 microgram/ml) for tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha), interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1 alpha) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) release. The levels of monokines were determined by a monokine-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Our results clearly show that, after 18 h incubation, macrophages from BCG-treated bladder cancer patients produced from 2.8- to 1.9-fold and from 2.0- to 1.3-fold greater amounts of TNF alpha and IL-1 alpha respectively, compared to macrophages from healthy controls, 5-fold higher than bladder cancer patients not treated with BCG. IL-6 was not affected. In another set of experiments macrophages (5 x 10(6) cells/ml) from healthy subjects were pretreated, or not, with BCG (100 micrograms/ml) overnight and treated, or not, with LPS 20 microgram/ml alone and in combination with interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) 250 ng/ml. Macrophages treated with BCG had a strong stimulatory effect on IL-1 alpha release (9.45 ng/ml) while LPS was less effective (3.59 ng/ml). The combination of BCG plus LPS produced an additive effect on IL-1 alpha release (13.71 ng/ml) compared to the effect of the compound alone. The addition of IL-1ra (250 ng/ml) to BCG was not effective, while when IL-1ra was added to BCG plus LPS only a partial inhibition of IL-1 alpha release was found (9.83 ng/ml), compared to BCG plus LPS without IL-1ra (13.71 ng/ml). These effects seem to be related to the inhibition of IL-1 alpha stimulated with LPS, but not BCG. The priming effect of BCG exerted on LPS-stimulated monocyte production of TNF alpha and IL-1 alpha from bladder cancer patients led us to study the possible modulation of fibrinogen and C-reactive protein in the serum of BCG-treated cancer patients. The plasma levels of fibrinogen and C-reactive protein were higher (approximately twice) in BCG-treated patients compared to values obtained in untreated patients or healthy controls. We conclude that the beneficial immunotherapeutic effects of BCG in bladder cancer patients are related to its capacity to prime macrophages to enhance the release of TNF alpha and IL-1 alpha, but not IL-6 in response to physiological secondary stimuli, or through the direct stimulation of BCG on IL-1 alpha or TNF alpha, which are directly involved in the killing of cancer cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)