Effect of mycoplasmas on natural cytotoxic activity and release of tumor necrosis factor alpha by spleen cells.

It has been reported that mycoplasma-infected cells are more sensitive to lysis by natural cytotoxic (NC) effector cells and that splenic NC cells release tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) when they lyse sensitive target cells. Here we showed that spleen cells released TNF-alpha when they were incubated with NC-sensitive cells that were infected with mycoplasmas or when they were incubated with mycoplasmas alone, but did not release TNF-alpha when incubated with NC-sensitive cells that were not infected with mycoplasmas. Thus, in the presence of mycoplasmas, spleen cell cultures contain both NC effector cells and free TNF-alpha. Because NC-sensitive cells are also sensitive to free TNF-alpha, when mycoplasma-infected cells were incubated with spleen cells, they were lysed by the combination of NC cells and free TNF-alpha. When NC-sensitive cells that were not infected with mycoplasmas were incubated with spleen cells, they were lysed only by NC effector cells and thus appeared to be less sensitive than mycoplasma-infected cells. These results also suggested that the release of TNF-alpha may be part of a host protective response to mycoplasmas.