Alleviation of immunosuppression in vitro by recombinant platelet factor 4.

To elucidate the mechanism by which platelet factor 4 (PF4), a secreted platelet protein, and its C-terminal peptides alleviate suppression of the antibody response in vivo, their immunoregulatory activity was studied in vitro, using cultured spleen cells from BALB/c mice primed with sheep red blood cells (SRBC). When addition of 48 h cultured concanavalin A (Con A) blasts at 5 x 10(5)/ml significantly suppressed the anti-SRBC plaque-forming cell response, suppression was alleviated in 25 of 29 experiments by 0.2 micrograms/ml recombinant (r)PF4 (6.4 nM if rPF4 is a tetramer). The effect of Con A blasts was abolished by cimetidine, a histamine type 2 (H2) antagonist. Dimaprit, an H2 agonist, at 1-2 x 10(-4) M, or splenic T cells that had been incubated for 1 h with dimaprit and washed, also caused significant suppression that was alleviated by 0.2 micrograms/ml rPF4 (n = 8), and by 0.02 micrograms/ml in six of these tests. The C-terminal 13 amino acid peptide of PF4 was active at 0.02-0.2 micrograms/ml (0.01-0.11 microM), but peptides from the middle or N-terminal end of the molecule, or IL-8, which shares structural homology with PF4, were inactive. IL-1 and IL-2 raised control responses without affecting suppression or its alleviation by rPF4. Neutralizing antibody to transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-beta 1) did not affect Con A blast-induced suppression and suppression induced by exogenous TGF-beta 1 (0.5 ng/ml) was not counteracted by rPF4. Blocking prostaglandin production with 0.2 or 2 microM indomethacin did not affect suppression significantly but reduced rPF4 activity; prostaglandin D2 restored the effect of rPF4.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)