Recombinant Human Tumor Necrosis Factor-α: Effects on Proliferation of Normal and Transformed Cells in Vitro

TLDR

The study examined how recombinant human TNF‑α and IFN‑γ affect growth of human and murine cell lines in vitro. rTNF‑α inhibited growth of certain tumor cell lines, especially when combined with IFN‑γ, but stimulated proliferation of normal fibroblasts, indicating its effects are not limited to tumor cells and may be broad in vivo.

Abstract

Modulation of the growth of human and murine cell lines in vitro by recombinant human tumor necrosis factor-alpha (rTNF-alpha) and recombinant human interferon-gamma (rIFN-gamma) was investigated. rTNF-alpha had cytostatic or cytolytic effects on only some tumor cell lines. When administered together with rIFN-gamma, rTNF-alpha showed enhanced antiproliferative effects on a subset of the cell lines tested. In contrast to its effects on sensitive tumor cells, rTNF-alpha augmented the growth of normal diploid fibroblasts. Variations in the proliferative response induced by rTNF-alpha were apparently not due to differences in either the number of binding sites per cell or their affinity for rTNF-alpha. These observations indicate that the effects of rTNF-alpha on cell growth are not limited to tumor cells, but rather that this protein may have a broad spectrum of activities in vivo.