THE RELEASE OF TNF-ALPHA (FACTOR) BY PERITONEAL-MACROPHAGES OF HAMSTERS BEARING TRANSPLANTABLE MELANOMAS

The influence of two kinds of transplantable melanomas on the secretory function of peritoneal macrophages, and particularly the release of TNF-alpha has been studied. The results showed a statistically significant increase of protein content in the supernatants from 24 h cultured macrophages from melanoma-bearing hamsters in comparison with control macrophages. The release of TNF-alpha by control macrophages was higher than that by macrophages of hamsters with transplantable melanomas. The decrease in release of this factor was more prominent in case of macrophages from hamsters bearing amelanotic melanoma, it may suggest that biological features of melanomas can influence peritoneal macrophages to release the TNF-alpha at different level.