Recombinant Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Does Not Inhibit The Growth Of African Trypanosomes In Axenic Cultures

Title
Recombinant Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Does Not Inhibit The Growth Of African Trypanosomes In Axenic Cultures
Publication Date
2003
Author(s)
Kitani, Hiroshi
Black, Samuel J.
Nakamura, Yoshio
Naessens, Jan
Murphy, Noel B.
Yokomizo, Yuichi
Gibson, John Paul
Iraqi, Fuad
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Place of publication
United States of America
DOI
10.1128/IAI.70.4.2210-2214.2002
UNE publication id
une:3078
Abstract
Mice whose tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) genes were disrupted developed higher levels of parasitemia than wild-type mice following infection with 'Trypanosoma congolense' IL1180 or T. 'brucei brucei' GUTat3.1, confirming the results of earlier studies. To determine whether TNF-α directly affects the growth of these and other bloodstream forms of African trypanosomes, we studied the effects of recombinant mouse, human, and bovine TNF-α on the growth of two isolates of T. 'congolense', IL1180 and IL3338, and two isolates of T. 'brucei brucei', GUTat3.1 and ILTat1.1, under axenic culture conditions. The preparations of recombinant TNF-α used were biologically active as determined by their capacity to kill L929 cells. Of five recombinant TNF-α lots tested, one lot of mouse TNF-α inhibited the growth of both isolates of T. 'brucei brucei' and one lot of bovine TNF-α inhibited the growth of T. 'brucei brucei' ILTat1.1 but only at very high concentrations and without causing detectable killing of the parasites. The other lots of mouse recombinant TNF-α, as well as human TNF-α, did not affect the growth of any of the test trypanosomes even at maximal concentrations that could be attained in the culture systems (3,000 to 15,000 U of TNF-α/ml of medium). These results suggest that exogenously added recombinant TNF-α generally does not inhibit the growth of African trypanosomes under the culture conditions we used. The impact of TNF-α on 'trypanosome parasitemia' may be indirect, at least with respect to the four strains of trypanosomes reported here.
Link
Citation
Infection and Immunity, 70(4), p. 2210-2214
ISSN
1098-5522
0019-9567
Start page
2210
End page
2214

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