Cytolytic activity against tumor cells by macrophage cell lines and augmentation by macrophage stimulants

Previous studies have shown that macrophage cell lines retained the ability to phagocytize, to secrete lysosomal enzymes, and to function as effector cells in antibody-dependent cellular cytoxicity. In this paper, the cytolytic activity of murine macrophage cell lines against tumor target cells was assessed using an 18-h 51Cr release assay. Of the macrophage cell lines tested, RAW 264, PU5-1.8 and IC-21 had intermediate to high levels of spontaneous cytolytic activity, P388D, and J774 had low to intermediate levels, while /WEHI-3 showed little or no cytolytic activity against RBL-5, MBL-2 and TU-5 target cells. Tumor-cell killing by macrophage cell lines could be augmented by the addition of macrophage stimulants, such as bacterial lipopolysaccharide and poly I:C, indicating that the activation of macrophages by these stimulants does not require the participation of other cell types. Treatment with interferon also augmented the tumor-cell killing by macrophage cell lines. Although the mechanism by which these cell lines exert their spontaneous or boosted cytotoxic activity is not clear, it does not appear to be due to depletion of nutrients since cell lines with high metabolic and proliferative activities, such as WEHI-3 and RBL-5, showed little or no cytotoxicity and supernatants from the macrophage cell lines did not exert any cytotoxic effects in their essay. Thus, it appears that the different macrophage cell lines represent different levels of activation and/or differentiation and may be useful for studying the development of these processes as well as providing a useful tool for analyzing the mechanisms of macrophage-mediated cytolysis.