Inhibition of cytokine production by a tumor cell product

Supernatants from cultured mouse and human tumour cells, but not mouse or guinea-pig fibroblasts, inhibited the production of a lymphokine, macrophage chemotactic factor, by PHA-stimulated mouse spleen cells. The supernatants affected spleen cells from old, but not young, mice. They were most active if added at the start of the spleen cell culture and did not act by binding phytohaemagglutinin (PHA). The active material had an approximate molecular weight, on membrane filtration, of 1000-10,000 and could be bound to and eluted from Con A-Sepharose. Tumour supernatant factor(s) of similar molecular weight inhibited the production of interleukin 1 (lymphocyte activating factor) in response to lipopolysaccharide by stimulated thioglycollate-induced peritoneal exudate macrophages, but not by Corynebacterium parvum-activated macrophages. Similar tumour-produced material has been found to inhibit the early phase of delayed-type hypersensitivity reactions in older mice. It is suggested that this effect is due, at least in part, to inhibition of interleukin 1 production leading to inhibition of lymphokine production.