Elevation of intracellular cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate levels in macrophages activated with lipopolysaccharide for tumor cell killing.

Abstract

The macrophage activation for tumor cytotoxicity with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was remarkably inhibited by adding indomethacin (5 x 10(-6) M) or 10mM LiCl which is known to inhibit adenylate cyclase activity. The tumor cytotoxicity of macrophages inhibited with these agents was recovered by adding dibutyryl cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP) (10(-4) or 10(-5) M) and furthermore tumor cell killing activity was augmented as compared with LPS-activated macrophage. Macrophages showed a 5 to 6 times increased intracellular cAMP concentration over the control within 30 min when incubated with LPS. However, the increased intracellular cAMP concentration was decreased by adding LiCl (10 mM). Thus, these findings indicate that there is an important relation between intracellular cAMP concentration and the mechanism of macrophage activation. One can then conclude that at least the initial enhancement of intracellular cAMP was important for tumor cell killing as a signal transmission in macrophage activated by LPS.