Soluble T cell receptors modulate cytokine production and oxygen metabolism by peritoneal macrophages

Preincubation of peritoneal macrophages and their subsequent culture with r ecombinant soluble T cell receptor (sTCR) results in significant increase o f: TNF-alpha, IL-1 beta, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12 production and nitric oxide (NO ) synthesis and this phenomenon was dose dependent. Moreover, treatment of macrophages with sTCR showed two to three fold increase of luminol dependen t chemiluminescence (LCL) when compared to untreated macrophages (Mf). In c ontrast, in our study we did not find any influence of sTCR on co-stimulato ry (B7.1 and B7.2), adhesion molecule (ICAM-1) or FcRII/III expression by m acrophages. However, macrophages treated with control supernatants received after phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) treatment of BW1100 cells or thymocytes termed s-BW or s-Th did not influence their biol ogical activity.