title: Bioactivities of a tumour necrosis-like factor released by chicken macrophages.
abstract: To test for tumour necrosis-like factor (TNF) of chickens, supernatants of a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated chicken macrophage cell line MQ-NCSU were analysed. A sequence of ion-exchange and gel-permeation chromatography was utilised to isolate TNF-like activity from the culture supernatant. The peak of TNF-like cytotoxic activity corresponded to the fractions with a molecular weight of 81 kDa or higher. Polyclonal anti-human TNF-alpha antiserum cross-reacted by Western blotting with a 17 kDa protein in the TNF-containing fraction under denaturing conditions. This result indicated that chicken TNF-like factor in the biologically active form may be a protein multimer of monomers of about 17 kDa. The molecular weight of these monomers is similar to the molecular weight of mammalian TNF-alpha. Chicken TNF-like factor stimulated macrophages by inducing morphological changes, enhancing Ia-expression, nitric oxide (NO) production and by synergising with interferon (IFN)-gamma in the induction of NO release from macrophages. The biological activities were not neutralised by anti-human TNF antiserum. These data suggest that LPS-stimulated chicken macrophages produced a functional homologue to mammalian TNF-alpha. This may be structurally quite different from the mammalian TNF molecule. Other factors may have been co-purified with the chicken TNF-like factor having overlapping functions and molecular weight. However, co-purification of chemokines and interleukin-1, major macrophage derived factors, with the chicken TNF-like factor can be excluded based on the purification strategies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary PathoBiology, University of Minnesota, St Paul 55108, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rautenschlein
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Subramanian
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Sharma
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002460:Cell Line; D002645:Chickens; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000494:pharmacology; D008264:Macrophages / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology*; D008934:Mitogens / Q000494:pharmacology; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D008934:Mitogens; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha