Production of cytokines by peritoneal macrophages and splenocytes after exposures of mice to low doses of X-rays

We have shown previously that irradiations of mice with 0.1 or 0.2 Gy of X-rays stimulate anti-tumour cytotoxic activities of peritoneal macrophages and splenocytes enriched for NK lymphocytes and suppress the development of pulmonary tumour colonies. The up-regulated cytotoxicities were related to the production of nitric oxide by macrophages, and perforin and Fas ligand by the splenocytes, but specific blockade of these pathways did not totally suppress the effector cell-mediated cytolysis of the tumour target. Hence, other factors such as cytotoxic/cytostatic cytokines might have been produced by the effector cells. To test this possibility peritoneal macrophages and splenocytes were isolated from BALB/c mice which had been either once or tentimes whole body-irradiated with the total doses of 0.1 and 0.2 Gy of X-rays and assayed for the levels of IL-1 beta, IL-2, IL-12, IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha in the incubation medium using the respective ELISA kits. The results demonstrate that both single and multiple exposures to the two low doses of X-rays significantly stimulate secretion of IL-1 beta, TNF-alpha and IL-12 by macrophages and IL-2 and IFN-gamma by splenocytes, but the kinetics and magnitude of the induced changes in the production of these cytokines differ between the two irradiation protocols.