Abstract
Nitric oxide, nitrite and nitrate are released by activated macrophages in an immune response. We showed here that nitrite influenced cell growth and antibody production in mouse lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated splenic B cells and B cell hybridomas. The addition of 10-7 and 10-6M nitrite enhanced deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis of LPS-stimulated splenic B cells. However, DNA synthesis and antibody production in the case of total spleen cells stimulated with LPS were suppressed by nitrite in a dose dependent-manner. These phenomena were also observed in a similar experiment involving mouse B cell hybridomas. Antibody production of all B cell hybridomas was significantly suppressed by the addition of nitrite. This suppressing effect could not be explained by changes in viable cell yields. This data suggests that the antibody production and cell proliferation of B cells may be influenced by nitrite from activated macrophages in the immune response.
