Nitrate production and phagocyte activation: differences among Sprague-Dawley, Wistar-Furth and Lewis rats.

We have found that activated resident peritoneal macrophages from Wistar-Furth and Sprague-Dawley rats produce significantly more superoxide (2.2 +/- 0.4 and 3.6 +/- 0.8 nmol of cytochrome c reduced/10(6) cells/10 min respectively) than those from Lewis rats (1.0 +/- 0.3 nmol of cytochrome c reduced/10(6) cells/10 min). Similar results are found in macrophages elicited with intraperitoneal thioglycolate. Furthermore, nitrate excreted in the urine increased greatly when either Wistar-Furth or Sprague-Dawley rats are injected i.p. with iota carrageenan (0.25 g), a response that did not occur with Lewis rats. This strain difference in the manifestations of the inflammatory response correlates with previous observations that Wistar-Furth and Sprague-Dawley rats, but not Lewis rats, develop suture-line colonic tumors when the ureters and bladder base are implanted into the colon.