Suppressor macrophages in African trypanosomiasis inhibit T cell proliferative responses by nitric oxide and prostaglandins.

Suppression of host T cell responses is one of the hallmarks of infection with the African trypanosomes. The cellular basis for immunosuppression includes the generation of suppressor macrophages that down-regulate T cell proliferative but not necessarily cytokine responses to both mitogen and trypanosome Ag. Since macrophages from infected animals display activation characteristics, we have asked whether products of activated cells, specifically nitric oxide (NO) and PG, may mediate the suppressor cell effects and immunosuppression observed. We demonstrate that cells isolated from B10.BR mice infected with Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense exhibited transcriptional up-regulation of inducible NO synthase and released significant amounts of NO. The levels of NO released were elevated further after stimulation of cells with T cell mitogens or specific parasite Ag; antibody blocking experiments demonstrated that this up-regulation of NO synthesis was at least partially dependent upon IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha. The addition of inducible NO synthase substrate analogues such as NG-monomethyl-L-arginine to cell cultures inhibited NO release and also partially reversed the suppressor cell activity and immunosuppression displayed by such cultures. PG levels also were elevated in cell cultures from infected mice, but the PG inhibitor indomethacin had no effect on suppressor cells or suppression when added alone to the cultures. However, the concurrent inhibition of NO and PG synthesis by the addition of both NG-monomethyl-L-arginine and indomethacin completely blocked suppressor cell activity associated with infected macrophages and also resulted in further recovery of infected cells from immunosuppression, thus revealing an epistatic effect between these two mediators. We conclude that macrophage activation in trypanosomiasis induces the release of reactive nitrogen intermediates and PG, which down-regulate proliferative responses by T cells during infection.