Natural cytotoxic activity is not necessarily mediated by the release of tumour necrosis factor

Natural cell-mediated cytotoxicity is mediated by a family of effector cells that express cytolytic activities distinct from those generally attributed to B cells, T cells and macrophages; it includes both natural killer (NK) and natural cytotoxic (NC) activities. There is now convincing evidence to show that NC activity, but not NK activity, is mediated by tumour necrosis factor (TNF). Further, it has been argued that it is the release of TNF, as a freely diffusible factor, that causes NC-mediated target lysis. Here, we present evidence that the admixture of NC-sensitive target cells and spleen cells, under conditions that result in NC-mediated target cell lysis, does not necessarily result in the release of freely diffusible TNF into the culture medium. Also, it is demonstrated that the procedures used do not result in inactivation or loss of significant amounts of TNF during the assay period, which might account for our failure to detect free TNF. These results suggest that NC activity is mediated by either a membrane-associated TNF activity, similar to that described for some of the lytic activity of activated macrophages, or by the release of TNF that is capable of acting only over a very short distance.