Induction of membrane-associated interleukin 1 alpha (IL-1 alpha) by synergistic activation of human blood monocytes with interferon gamma and muramyl dipeptide analog.

: Human blood monocytes isolated by centrifugal elutriation from healthy donors were tested for ability to produce membrane-associated IL-1 in response to activation stimuli such as various types of interferons (alpha, beta and gamma) and/or synthetic des-methyl muramyl dipeptide (norMDP). When monocytes were treated with norMDP or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for 16 hr, they released IL-1 into their culture supernatant. When these activated monocytes were fixed with paraformaldehyde (PFA), they stimulated blastogenic responses of C3H/HeJ mouse thymocytes to PHA, suggesting that membrane-associated IL-1 could be induced by norMDP or LPS. Membrane-associated IL-1 was also found to be induced by the synergistic actions of suboptimal concentrations of rIFN-gamma and nor MDP, but not of rIFN-alpha A or rIFN-beta with norMDP. A specific anti-IL-1 alpha antiserum completely inhibited membrane-associated IL-1 activity, but did not affect the thymocyte-stimulating activity of fixed monocytes. IL-1 alpha was detected by fluorescence staining using the anti-IL-1 alpha antiserum on monocytes fixed after gamma IFN-gamma and norMDP. These results suggest that IFN-gamma may be important in expression of membrane-bound IL-1 alpha by the human blood monocytes responsible for regulation of immune responses in vivo.