TNF (tumor necrosis factor) modulates various cell functions directly or indirectly and has an autocrine, paracrine and endocrine regulatory function. TNF often induces various cytokines which regulate inflammation and immunity. Here we demonstrated that TNF was chemotactic for neutrophils and a good trigger for TNF production.
We also demonstrated that physiological concentrations of glucocorticoids inhibited non-competitively the cytotoxic activity of TNF.
These findings suggest that an inflammatory reaction by TNF may be regulated by glucocorticoids through some mechanism involving de novo transcription and translation. Finally, these and other's results indicate that TNF play an important role in host defense mechanisms including inflammation and immunity.