Modulation of proinflammatory cytokine release from human polymorphonuclear leukocytes by gamma interferon

Polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) have been identified as important sources of various proinflammatory cytokines. Since Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) is one of the activating factors of PMN, we have examined its effect on PMN-derived cytokine production. Recently, we demonstrated that IFN-gamma inhibits the release of IL-8 by PMN stimulated for 2 with different agonists. In this report, we show that the IFN-gamma-dependent inhibition of IL-8 release by PMN stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and/or interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta), but not with Y-IgG, is a transient phenomenon. Indeed, PMN stimulated in the presence of IFN-gamma for 18 hr demonstrated an enhanced expression of IL-8 antigen in cell-free supernatants compared with stimuli alone. This enhanced accumulation of IL-8 partially reflected changes at the level of cell-associated versus cell-secreted IL-8 as PMN incubated with IFN-gamma secreted significantly more IL-8, relative to untreated cells. Unlike IL-8, the