TY - JOUR T1 - Thymomodulin increases release of granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor and of tumour necrosis factor in vitro JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 1097 LP - 1103 DO - 10.1183/09031936.93.05091097 VL - 5 IS - 9 AU - B Balbi AU - MT Valle AU - S Oddera AU - E Balleari AU - F Manca AU - GA Rossi AU - L Allegra Y1 - 1992/10/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/5/9/1097.abstract N2 - To evaluate the effects of thymomodulin (TMD), a thymic biological response modifier derived from calf thymus, on the release of various cytokines involved in the lung immune reactions, human alveolar macrophages (AM) and peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) were cultured either alone or in co-cultures. In co-cultures of AM with PBL, TMD did not induce any change in gamma-interferon (gamma-IFN) and interleukin-1 (IL-1) secretion, while it was able to increase the level, of tumour necrosis factor (TNF) (TMD 100 micrograms.m-1, p < 0.05 vs control cultures), and of granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) (TMD 1, 10 and 100 micrograms.ml-1 p < 0.05, < 0.05 and < 0.01, respectively, vs control cultures). In cultures of AM alone, TMD did not induce changes in the levels of any of the tested cytokines, whilst in supernatants from PBL lymphocyte cultures, TMD at 1, 10 and 100 micrograms.ml-1 increased the amounts of GM-CSF (p < 0.01 each comparison vs control cultures). Thus, TMD seems to directly stimulate lymphocytes to secrete GM-CSF and to modulate macrophage-lymphocyte interactions, resulting in the release of TNF and GM-CSF. ER -