REGULATION OF NEUTROPHIL APOPTOSIS BY SODIUM-BUTYRATE

Neutrophils have a very short half life because they constitutively un dergo apoptosis. Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM- CSF) can delay apoptosis, but this agent also primes functions such as the respiratory burst and receptor upregulaton. Here, we show that so dium butyrate, which has been shown to increase gene expression and di fferentiation in a variety of cell types, is more effective than GM-CS F in delaying neutrophil apoptosis. Thus, sodium butyrate preserves ce ll morphology and function, and butyrate-treated cells express high le vels of CD16 after overnight culture. However, neither GM-CSF nor sodi um butyrate appear to affect mRNA levels for CD16. (C) 1996 The Intern ational Association of Biological Standardization.