PRODUCTION OF IL-6 AND TNF-ALPHA BY THE MACROPHAGE-LIKE CELL-LINE RAW-264.7 AFTER TREATMENT WITH A CELL-WALL EXTRACT OF CANDIDA-ALBICANS

Treatment of the cell wall of Candida albicans with ethylenediamine yi elds an extract that is antigenic for both the humoral and cell-mediat ed arms of the immune system, This extract has been shown in previous studies by this laboratory and others to possess potent immunomodulato ry activity, We report results here that show that treatment of the ma crophage-like cell line RAW 264.7 with the ethylenediamine cell wall ( EDA-CW) extract results in an increase in the production of both inter leukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). Our resul ts also show that the EDA-CW extract possess potent costimulatory acti vity when combined with interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma). We have found, o n the other hand, that EDA-CW extract-treated cells fail to produce el evated levels of IL-1 either alone or in combination with IFN-gamma as a costimulus. Our analysis also shows that the activation of TNF-alph a production by the EDA-CW extract appears to be at the level of trans cription, since Northern blot analysis shows that the increase in the level of TNF-alpha mRNA is essentially identical to the rise in TNF-al pha activity released, We suggest that a component of the immunomodula tory activity of the EDA-CW extract is via the activation of macrophag e function.