Anti-inflammatory actions of endogenous and exogenous interleukin-10 versus glucocorticoids on macrophage functions of the newly born

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether specific macrophage immune functions of the newly born are insensitive to the actions of therapeutic levels of dexamethasone (DEX), previously measured in infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), compared with betamethasone (BETA) and exogenous or endogenous interleukin-10 (IL-10). STUDY DESIGN: Macrophages were differentiated from cord blood monocytes (N=18). A serial dose-response (around 10(-8)M), in vitro study was used to examine the effect of DEX, BETA and IL-10, on proinflammatory (PI) cytokine release, phagocytosis and respiratory burst. RESULT: Exogenous IL-10 (10(-8)M) significantly (P \u3c 0.05) inhibited the endotoxin-stimulated release of IL-6, IL-8 and tumor necrosis factor by 63 to 82% with no significant effect by DEX and BETA. There was no inhibition by these three agents at 10(-8)M on phagocytosis and respiratory burst. Inhibition of endogenous IL-10 with a monoclonal antibody significantly increased endotoxin-stimulated cytokine release by at least fourfold. CONCLUSION: Macrophages were relatively insensitive to therapeutic levels of DEX and BETA with regard to PI cytokine release. This study provides rationale for translational and preclinical research using airway instillation of IL-10 for the treatment of BPD

NFκB Is Persistently Activated in Continuously Stimulated Human Neutrophils

Increased activation of the transcription factor NFκB in the neutrophils has been associated with the pathogenesis of sepsis, acute lung injury (ALI), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), and other neutrophil-mediated inflammatory disorders. Despite recent progress in analyzing early NFκB activation in human neutrophils, activation of NFκB in persistently stimulated neutrophils has not been previously studied. Because it is the persistent NFκB activation that is thought to be involved in the host response to sepsis and the pathogenesis of ALI and BPD, we hypothesized that continuously stimulated human neutrophils may exhibit a late phase of NFκB activity. The goal of this study was to analyze the NFκB activation and expression of IκB and NFκB proteins during neutrophil stimulation with inflammatory signals for prolonged times. We demonstrate that neutrophil stimulation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) induces, in addition to the early activation at 30–60 min, a previously unrecognized late phase of NFκB activation. In LPS-stimulated neutrophils, this NFκB activity typically had a biphasic character, whereas TNFα-stimulated neutrophils exhibited a continuous NFκB activity peaking around 9 h after stimulation. In contrast to the early NFκB activation that inversely correlates to the nuclear levels of IκBα, however, in continuously stimulated neutrophils, NFκB is persistently activated despite considerable levels of IκBα present in the nucleus. Our data suggest that NFκB is persistently activated in human neutrophils during neutrophil-mediated inflammatory disorders, and this persistent NFκB activity may represent one of the underlying mechanisms for the continuous production of proinflammatory mediators