Human urine deoxyribonuclease increases endogenous thymidine in the mouse thymocyte interleukin 1 assay: an...

Molecular size chromatography of urine from normal individuals showed two peaks of apparent IL-1 suppressive activities when tested by the murine thymocyte comitogenic assay (mol wt greater than 600 kD and 20 to 60 kD). However, the high molecular weight inhibitory activity disappeared if the concentration of PHA was increased during assay, and the low molecular weight inhibitory activity subsided in the presence of a high concentration of [3H]thymidine. The 20 to 60 kD fractions contained DNase activity which acted on DNA liberated from the considerable number of dying thymocytes during the course of the assay. Thus, incubating the urine fractions with freeze-killed murine T cells, whose DNA was prelabeled with [3H]thymidine, showed the appearance of supernatant [3H]thymidine correlating quantitatively with the DNase activity in the fractions. This indicates that urine DNase together with phosphatase(s) in the thymocyte cultures increase the level of extracellular, unlabeled thymidine, thereby diluting the specific activity of the tracer. These artificial IL-1-inhibitors may explain why urine from both normal and febrile individuals 'inhibits' IL-1 only when tested for thymocyte-activating activity but not when tested for other biological activities.