Thioglycollate-elicited murine macrophages are cytotoxic to Mycoplasma arginini-infected YAC-1 tumor cells

Macrophages are important components of natural immunity involved in inhibition of tumor growth and destruction of tumor cells. It is known that these cells can be activated for tumoricidal activity by lymphokines and bacterial products. We investigated whether YAC-1 tumor cells infected with Mycoplasma arginini stimulate nitric oxide (NO) release and macrophage cytotoxic activity. Thioglycollate-elicited macrophages from male BALB/c mice were co-cultured for 20 h with YAC-1 tumor cells infected or not with Mycoplasma arginini. The cytotoxic activity was evaluated by MTT assay and nitrite levels were determined with the Griess reagent. Thioglycollate-elicited macrophages co-cultured with noninfected YAC-1 cells showed low cytotoxic activity (34.7 +/- 8.6%) and low production of NO (4.7 +/- 3.1 microM NO2-). These macrophages co-cultured with mycoplasma-infected YAC-1 cells showed significantly higher cytotoxic activity (61.4 +/- 9.1%; P < 0.05) and higher NO production (48.5 +/- 13 microM NO2-; P < 0.05). Addition of L-NAME (10 mM), an inhibitor of NO synthesis, to these co-cultures reduced the cytotoxic activity to 37.4 +/- 2% (P < 0.05) and NO production to 3 +/- 4 microM NO2- (P < 0.05). The present data show that Mycoplasma arginini is able to induce macrophage cytotoxic activity and that this activity is partially mediated by NO.