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Infection and Immunity, April 2002, p. 2210-2214, Vol. 70, No. 4
0019-9567/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.70.4.2210-2214.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Recombinant Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Does Not Inhibit the Growth of African Trypanosomes in Axenic Cultures{dagger}

Hiroshi Kitani,1* Samuel J. Black,2 Yoshio Nakamura,1 Jan Naessens,3 Noel B. Murphy,4 Yuichi Yokomizo,5 John Gibson,3 and Fuad Iraqi3

Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences,1 National Institute of Animal Health, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan,5 Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Paige Laboratory, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts,2 International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya,3 Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland4

Received 3 October 2001/ Returned for modification 31 October 2001/ Accepted 17 December 2001

Mice whose tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-{alpha}) 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-{alpha} directly affects the growth of these and other bloodstream forms of African trypanosomes, we studied the effects of recombinant mouse, human, and bovine TNF-{alpha} 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-{alpha} used were biologically active as determined by their capacity to kill L929 cells. Of five recombinant TNF-{alpha} lots tested, one lot of mouse TNF-{alpha} inhibited the growth of both isolates of T. brucei brucei and one lot of bovine TNF-{alpha} 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-{alpha}, as well as human TNF-{alpha}, 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-{alpha}/ml of medium). These results suggest that exogenously added recombinant TNF-{alpha} generally does not inhibit the growth of African trypanosomes under the culture conditions we used. The impact of TNF-{alpha} on trypanosome parasitemia may be indirect, at least with respect to the four strains of trypanosomes reported here.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS), 3-1-5 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8602, Japan. Phone and fax: 81-298-38-7801. E-mail: kitani{at}affrc.go.jp.

{dagger} International Livestock Research Institute publication no. 200160.

Infection and Immunity, April 2002, p. 2210-2214, Vol. 70, No. 4
0019-9567/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/IAI.70.4.2210-2214.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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