Functional studies of bovine alveolar neutrophils elicited with recombinant bovine IL-1 beta

Bovine rIL-1 beta (rbIL-1 beta) was instilled intrabronchially into the lungs of steers to elicit harvestable alveolar neutrophils for functional analysis. Before instillation, bronchoalveolar lavage samples from the steers consisted of 96.4 +/- 1.5% (mean +/- SEM) macrophages, with the remaining cells neutrophils and occasional lymphocytes. Four hours after instillation of 1.0 and 10.0 nmol of IL-1, the lavage samples consisted of 96.3 +/- 0.8% and 91.0 +/- 5.7% neutrophils, respectively. Alveolar neutrophils elicited with rbIL-1 beta and challenged with the calcium ionophore, A23187, released similar amounts of leukotriene B4 (LTB4) and its nonenzymatic isomer LTB I, and significantly greater amounts of 5-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid and the nonenzymatic isomer LTB II, when compared with circulating neutrophils. The rbIL-1 beta did not, by itself, stimulate release of arachidonate metabolites from circulating neutrophils in quantities that were detectable by HPLC. Circulating neutrophils, preincubated with rbIL-1 beta and stimulated with A23187, released significantly greater amounts of 5-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid and total 5-lipoxygenase metabolites when compared with control cells not incubated with rbIL-1 beta. Incubation of circulating neutrophils with rbIL-1 beta and A23187 concurrently resulted in a significantly increased release of all 5-lipoxygenase metabolites of arachidonate. However, both the release of superoxide anion and bacterial killing by rbIL-1 beta-elicited bovine alveolar neutrophils did not differ from the values obtained for circulating neutrophils.