ACTIVATION OF P388D1 MACROPHAGE CELL-LINE BY CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC DRUGS

It has been found that certain antineoplastic drugs impart their funct ion with a distinct duality. Besides being tumoricidal, they are capab le of acting as immunopotentiator. This led us to investigate the effe ct of cytosine arabinoside (CA), vincristine sulphate (VS), cyclophosp hamide (CS), mitomycin C (MMC), hydroxy urea (HU) and lipopolysacchari de (LPS) on a macrophage cell line P388D1. Supernatants collected from P388D1 cells treated with CA, VS, CS, MMC, HU or LPS demonstrated enh anced production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) confirmed by bioassay on L929 tumor target cells and increased interleukin-l (IL-l) producti on by standard thymocyte proliferation bioassay. Also, supernatants sh owed increased amounts of nitric oxide and lysozyme using Griess react ion and reduction in turbidity of Micrococcus lysodeikticus, respectiv ely. The above findings demonstrate that these drugs may be used not o nly as chemotherapeutic agents but also as macrophage-activating agent s.