Improvement of superoxide production in monocytes from patients with chronic granulomatous disease by recombinant cytokines

Cytokines have been shown to modulate the respiratory burst of polymorphonuclear leukocytes and monocytes from normal controls. We have examined whether monocytes from children with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) can be primed by cytokines other than interferon-gamma (IFN gamma), which has been demonstrated to improve the production of reactive oxygen species in vivo and in vitro. Monocytes isolated from peripheral blood were cultured without and with IFN gamma (500 U/mL), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (500 U/mL), interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) (100 U/mL), and IL-3 (100 U/mL). After 3 days of culture, the phorbolmyristate acetate (2 ng/mL) and the formyl- methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (0.1 mumol/L)-stimulated superoxide- production was determined in a microtiter system. In nearly all of the 14 patients examined (5 autosomal, 5 X-chromosomal, and 4 of unknown inheritance), an improvement of superoxide production could be demonstrated. The most impressive effect with the cytokines newly tested was seen with monocytes from autosomal CGD patients treated with IL-3 and stimulated by phorbolmyristate acetate. In single patients cultivation of monocytes with IL-6 and granulocyte-macrophage colony- stimulating factor resulted in only slight improvement of superoxide production. Our findings indicate that cytokines other than IFN gamma can positively modulate the defective respiratory burst in CGD and that each patient reacts with an individual pattern to different cytokines.