Abstract
It is well known that monokines, IL-1(Interleukin-1) and TNF (Tumor Necrosis Factor), are produced by macrophages after stimulated with various agents. These cytokines are involved in various aspects of the inflammatory process and immunolo-gical response in addition to their original activities to proliferate T lymphocytes and causing tumor necrosis, respectively. Recently, there have been reported that IL-1 and TNF also play an important role in mycobacterial infections such as granuloma formation.
In the present study, IL-1 and TNF productions were observed by mouse peritoneal exudate and resi-dent macrophages after incubation with heat-killed M. lepraemurium and M. avium in vitro. The pro-duction was enhanced by Phagocytosis of these mycobacteria in a dose dependent manner, and the time course of the production was maximum within 24 hr after phagocytosis of these mycobacteria. It was also shown of morphological changes and en-hanced glucose consumption in media by these mac-rophages.
Above results suggest that phagocytosis of myco-bacteria by macrophages leads to monokine produc-tion, which would not only causes well known im-munological reactions but also makes characteristic phenomena to be observed in mycobacterial infec-tions.
