Transforming growth factor-beta stimulates arginase activity in macrophages. Implications for the regulation of macrophage cytotoxicity.

Macrophage arginine metabolism via nitric oxide (NO) synthase and arginase pathways reduces and enhances tumor cell proliferation, respectively. Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) has been shown to down-regulate the NO synthase pathway. The present study describes the effect of TGF-beta on the arginase pathway. TGF-beta up-regulated arginase activity in rat peritoneal macrophages as assessed by measuring the generation of [14C]urea from [14C]-L-arginine in the presence of NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA). The stimulation, which reached fivefold after a 48-h exposure of macrophages to 10 ng/ml TGF-beta, was due to reduction in Km value of arginase. TGF-beta-induced up-regulation of arginase activity led to the release of more polyamines, mainly putrescine. The role of this up-regulation on macrophage cytotoxicity toward L-929 tumor cells was analyzed in coculture experiments. Macrophages blunted DNA synthesis by L-929 cells as assessed by measuring the incorporation of [3H]TdR into the cells and the proportion of cells in the G2 phase. Addition of TGF-beta in the presence of L-NMMA permitted L-929 cells cocultured with macrophages to resume DNA synthesis. The mechanism responsible for this restoration was the up-regulation of arginase activity rather than the down-regulation of NO synthase activity since TGF-beta in the presence of L-NMMA failed to further reduce NO synthase activity whereas it still enhanced arginase activity; synthetic putrescine (1-10 microM) also blunted macrophage cytotoxicity toward L-929 cells. This is the first evidence that TGF-beta up-regulates arginase activity in macrophages and, hence, limits macrophage-dependent cytostasis.