[Induction of tumor necrosis factor alpha by Mycoplasma penetrans isolated from patients with AIDS]

The activity of induce tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) production of several mycoplasmas, including AIDS associated mycoplasmas was investigated. M. penetrans which was detected and isolated from urine and tissue of Kaposi's sarcoma of patients with AIDS markedly exhibited the induction of TNF alpha production of both THP-1 cells and murine peritoneal macrophages to compare to other mycoplasmas. Each amount of M. penetrans, M. fermentans, M. incognitus, Acholeplasma ladilawii, M. orale, M. salivarium, M. hominis required for induction of 50% cytotoxicity to L cells in the supernatants of mouse peritoneal macrophages cultured with those microorganisms was 0.65 micrograms/ml, 11.3 micrograms/ml, 19.6 micrograms/ml, 6.6 micrograms/ml, 7.7 micrograms/ml, 6.3 micrograms/ml, 5.7 micrograms/ml respectively. Next, the components of M. penetrans were extracted by Bligh-Dyer method, in order to investigate chemical component to induce TNF alpha-production. The activity of TNF alpha induction was mainly found in the methanol-phase, but not in the chloroform-phase, where lipid and glycolipid of the microorganisms were generally thought to be accumulated. The binding of the active component to concanavalin A-Sepharose was blocked in the presence of Methyl alpha-D-mannopyranoside and Methyl alpha-D-glucopyranoside. These results suggest that the component possess mannoside and glucoside active site.