The possible involvement of free radical scavenging properties in the actions of cytokines.

Abstract

Among the cytokines which show an antiproliferative effect on certain tumor cells, we investigated the free radical scavenging properties of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interferon-alpha, and interferon-gamma. The scavenging properties were determined in vitro by the ability to reduce DPPH free radicals. All of these cytokines exhibited marked DPPH free radical scavenging ability.