CYTOKINE PRODUCTION (IL-6 AND TNF-ALPHA) IN WHOLE-BLOOD CELL-CULTURESOF PATIENTS WITH SYSTEMIC LUPUS-ERYTHEMATOSUS

Whole blood cell culture has great advantage over isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cell culture, because it needs only small amounts of blood and is fast to perform. The current report focuses on the measu rement of IL-6 and TNF alpha produced by peripheral blood monocytes of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in the whole blood c ell culture system. After an initial triggering with lipopolysaccharid e (LPS), a specific stimulus for monocytes, a decreased production of IL-6 relative to the controls was observed. Dividing our SLE patients according to treatment with corticosteroids, overall the IL-6 producti on was decreased in the patients treated with corticosteroids. TNF alp ha production was comparable with normals, with the exception of an in creased spontaneous production and using LPS stimulus of 4 pg/ml. In t he patients treated with corticosteroids a decreased TNF production wa s observed, in contrast to the non-treated patients in which an increa sed TNF production was found compared with the controls using LPS dose s higher than 62 pg/ml. The impaired acute phase reaction (APR) that h as been described in the literature, might be explained by our observa tion of a decreased production of mainly IL-6. However, also this stud y showed that treatment has a strong impact on ex vivo IL-6 and TNF pr oduction.