Journal of Leukocyte Biology 40:21-28 (1986) Effect of Human Recombinant Tumor Necrosis Factor on the Growth of Different Human and Mouse Long-Term

Previous studies have demonstrated that one of the most salient features of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is its ability to induce tumor necrosis in vivo, and the specificity of its cytotoxic/cytostatic activity for tumor cells has been dem-onstrated in in vitro studies in which this lymphokine has been shown to kill cultured cells of malignant lines and to have no effect on cells of normal diploid lines. Studies described herein defined the effect of highly purified human recombinant TNF on cells of 34 different human and murine hematopoietic cell lines, particularly human leukemic T and B cells of long-term lymphoblastoid cultures. Results of these studies demonstrated that TNF at concentrations of 3,600 U/mI had no significant effect on the growth of these cells as defined by cytotoxicity, measured with the use of the trypan blue dye-exclusion assay and as defined by cytostasis, assayed by the enumeration of cells and the uptake of [3H]-thymidine and-uridine. In contrast, positive control cultures of TNF-sensitive cells from a murine tumor (L-M/clone L-929, connective tissue) dis-played at 50 % (LD50) reduction in growth by TNF at 5 U/mI. Likewise, human tumors ( MCF-7, breast, and HT-29, colon) were also highly sensitive (LDso <100 U/mI). These studies demonstrate that T and B cells of lympho-blastoid lines as well as cells of other hematopoietic lines display little or no sensitivity to TNF