title: Prothymosin alpha 1 effects in vitro on chemotaxis, cytotoxicity and oxidative response of neutrophils from melanoma, colorectal and breast tumor patients.
abstract: Immunoregulatory effects of thymic peptides on functions of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) are poorly investigated. We studied the effects of prothymosin alpha 1 (Pro alpha 1) on PMNs from patients with colorectal tumors, breast tumors and melanoma (total n = 37) in comparison with healthy donors (n = 18), with respect to chemotaxis, cytotoxicity against HCT-116 colon tumor cells, oxidative response (chemiluminescence reaction) as well as expression of surface marker molecules. We found that Pro alpha 1 was equally effective in stimulating the chemotactic activity of PMNs from tumor patients and healthy donors (43% increase). PMNs from tumor patients, especially with breast tumor, showed a significant enhancement of cytotoxicity against the tumor target cells in comparison with healthy donors. With respect to the PMNs cytotoxicity, only about 50% of the colorectal tumor patients and healthy donors responded to Pro alpha 1 and FMLP. As to the oxidative response of PMNs, elevated levels were found only among colorectal tumor patients. Pro alpha 1 significantly increased the oxidative response in breast and colorectal tumor patients by 55% and 25%, respectively. Pro alpha 1 decreased the expression of CD16 on PMNs of healthy donors, but not that of CD11a, CD11b, CD11c, CD13, CD14, CD15 and CD32. Therefore, we suggest, that Pro alpha 1 may improve some PMN functions of tumor patients, associated with the proposed role in host-tumor interaction.
authors.affiliation: Dep. Biochemie, Molekularbiologie und Biotechnologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Heidecke
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Eckert
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schulze-Forster
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Maurer
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood*; D002634:Chemotaxis, Leukocyte / Q000187:drug effects*; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D016177:Macrophage-1 Antigen / Q000096:biosynthesis; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000097:blood*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009240:N-Formylmethionine Leucyl-Phenylalanine / Q000494:pharmacology; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000378:metabolism*; D017452:Receptors, IgG / Q000096:biosynthesis; D013947:Thymosin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D016177:Macrophage-1 Antigen; D011498:Protein Precursors; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D017452:Receptors, IgG; C040782:prothymosin alpha; D009240:N-Formylmethionine Leucyl-Phenylalanine; D013947:Thymosin