Tumour necrosis factor receptor I (p55) is upregulated on endothelial cells by exposure to the tumour-derived cytokine endothelial monocyte-activating polypeptide II (EMAP-II)

Endothelial monocyte activating polypeptide-II (EMAP-II) is an inflammatory cytokine known to have a role in neutrophil and macrophage chemotaxis and in apoptosis, It is a tumour-derived cytokine that sensitizes tumour vascul ature to the effects of systemic TNF. In order to gain insight into the mec hanism by which EMAP-II sensitizes vessels to TNF, me focused on its effect s on TNF receptor expression. In human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HU VEC), TNF-R1 mRNA is increased four-fold following incubation with recombin ant EMAP-II. Conditioned media from cell lines known to produce high levels of EMAP-II upregulated TNF-R1 but not TNF-R2 by up to twenty-fold compared to media controls and low expressing cell lines; this effect was blocked b y anti-EMP-II antibody, Recombinant EMAP-II upregulated TNF-R1 expression b y approximately six-fold. Analysis of HUVEC lysates by ELISA showed increas ed expression of TNF-R1 within 2 h; TNF-R2 expression was unaffected by rec ombinant EMAP-II. Finally, immunohistochemistry of human melanomas in vivo showed that TNF-R1 staining is increased on the vessels of rumours known to express high levels of EMAP-II compared to low EMAP-II expressing tumours. These results suggest that EMAP-II upregulates TNF-R1 expression by endoth elial cells both in vitro and in vivo, This induction of TNF-R1 expression may be the mechanism by which EMAP-II sensitizes tumour endothelium to the effects of TNF leading to haemorrhagic necrosis. (C) 2000 Academic Press.