Regulation of IL-1 and TNF-alpha expression during the differentiation of bone marrow derived macrophage.

Macrophage differentiation is accompanied by the acquisition of both Ag presentation and tumoricidal activities. In this set of experiments, the expression of IL-1 by bone marrow-derived macrophage (BMDM) was found to be highly regulated, with both the expression of IL-1 mRNA and mIL-1 appearing only at discrete stages of activation. The accumulation of IL-1 alpha (membrane) mRNA was induced by endotoxin but not IFN-gamma or CSF-1. mIL-1 was detected by D10.G4.1 T cells on BMDM only after 7 days of in vitro differentiation. Secreted IL-1 beta was detected by day 3 of culture, with enhanced production observed after activation with endotoxin. IL-1 beta mRNA was found to be constitutively expressed in BMDM as early as day 3 of culture. The expression of IL-1 beta mRNA was up-regulated by endotoxin after 30 min of exposure with maximal expression occurring after 2 to 6 h of exposure. Constitutive expression of IL-1 alpha mRNA was not detected but 1 h of endotoxin exposure resulted in the appearance of IL-1 alpha transcripts. As with IL-1 beta, TNF-alpha mRNA was also constitutively expressed during a wide time period of differentiation; however, in contrast, to IL-1 beta, TNF-alpha mRNA expression was up-regulated by both endotoxin and IFN-gamma. The expression of TNF-alpha macrophage by BMDM coincided with the acquisition of tumoricidal activity. An examination of the mRNA sequences encoding the proto-oncogenes c-myc and c-fms demonstrated the expression of c-myc only on day 3, whereas c-fms was constitutively expressed throughout the culture period. Endotoxin stimulation of BMDM resulted in a transitory increase in c-myc expression only at day 3 of culture, whereas endotoxin had no effect on c-fms expression until 7 days of culture at which time expression declined. In contrast, the expression of transferrin receptor mRNA transcripts, which were also constitutively expressed throughout the entire culture period, were not affected by stimulation with either endotoxin or IFN-gamma. These results indicate BMDM expression of the affector molecules IL-1 alpha and beta and the effector molecule TNF-alpha are regulated separately during unique "differentiation-specific" phases of development.