"Suppressor Factor" of Neutrophils: A Short Story of a Long-Term Misconception

A large body of evidence obtained during the last decade has demonstrated that neutrophils suppress T cell proliferation in different models of inflammation and cell interaction. The commonly used method for assessing cell proliferation and proliferation inhibition is measuring [3H]thymidine incorporation into cells. Earlier, we observed inhibition of [3H]thymidine uptake in experiments on neutrophil-mediated regulation of T cell response in tuberculosis immunity. Here, we used different types of proliferating cells to analyze the nature of the soluble "neutrophil factor" by a variety of methods (dialysis, HPLC, mass spectrometry, and NMR) and unambiguously demonstrated that neutrophils do not synthesize a specific factor inhibiting cell proliferation, but secrete high concentrations of extracellular thymidine that competitively inhibit [3H]thymidine incorporation. Although the physiological significance of thymidine secretion by neutrophils remains unknown, this phenomenon should be carefully considered when designing test systems for studying cell-cell interactions.