Characteristics of CD14 shedding from human monocytes. Evidence for the competition of soluble CD14 (sCD14) with CD14 receptors for lipopolysaccharide (LPS) binding.

The accumulation of sCD14 shed from human monocytes in vivo might correlate with other inflammatory parameters and could be of importance in overcoming a sepsis situation. The development of the sCD14 titer in the supernatant of monocyte-enriched MNC cultures isolated from healthy volunteers was studied utilizing a commercially available sCD14 ELISA. These culture experiments revealed the prolonged liberation of sCD14 into the supernatant during a period of several days. A medium-exchange schedule of 2-3 days was found to be superior to a longer incubation period with respect to the sCD14 yield. PMA initially enhanced the CD14 shedding slightly, but after a few hours it strongly repressed the process. Such a reduction was also achieved by protein synthesis inhibitors (cycloheximide, actinomycin D). Additionally, we monitored the concentration of sCD14, CRP, IL-6 and IL-8 in human sera from healthy persons or patients suffering from severe burn injuries with or without sepsis. Our results indicate that sCD14 is strongly correlated with IL-6, but not with IL-8. sCD14 titers were higher in the group of patients with both burn injuries and sepsis. From experiments with monocyte-enriched MNC cultures isolated from healthy volunteers and medium supplemented with sera containing sCD14 as well as radiolabeled LPS, we conclude that the enhanced shedding of CD14 in vivo during sepsis is probably not able to reduce the binding of LPS to monocytes.