Interleukin-1 stimulates rapid release of cytokine-induced neutrophil chemoattractant (CINC) in rat lungs.

We found that intratracheal insufflation of interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1) in rats rapidly increased lung lavage cytokine-induced neutrophil chemoattractant (CINC) concentrations, lung tissue myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, and lung lavage neutrophil counts, and that CINC elevation preceded the migration of neutrophils into the lung. Further, we found that bolus CINC insufflation increased CINC concentrations in plasma, and we found that alveolar macrophages (AM) in lung tissue selections or AM recovered by lavage from rats given IL-1 intratracheally stained positively for CINC by immunohistochemistry. In addition, incubating rat AM with increasing doses of IL-1 in vitro progressively increased CINC concentrations in the culture medium. Our results suggest that the potent neutrophil chemoattractant CINC is rapidly produced and released by rat AM following challenge with IL-1 in vivo or in vitro, and support the hypothesis that CINC is an important mediator in the development of pulmonary inflammation in the rat.