TNFα and MIP-2:: role in particle-induced inflammation and regulation by oxidative stress

The cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) plays a critical role in particle-induced inflammation in the lung. TNF alpha production by macrophage can be stimulated by a variety of noxious particles and initiate a cascade of responses involving adhesion molecule expression and production of chemotactic cytokines which ultimately result in the infiltration of inflammatory cells to site of infection or tissue injury in the respiratory tract. Regarding chemotactic cytokines, TNF alpha is a potent agonist of chemokine expression in both immune and non-immune cells (e.g. epithelial cells, fibroblasts). The chemokine macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2) plays a major role in mediating the neutrophilic inflammatory response of the rodent lung to particles such as quartz, crocidolite asbestos, as well as high doses of other relative innocuous dusts such as titanium dioxide. The documented sources of MIP-2 in the rodent lung after particle exposure include macrophages as well as epithelial cells. Recent studies indicate that expression of the MIP-2 gene in rat lung epithelial cells is dependent on the transcription factor NF kappa B and is regulated, in part, by oxidative stress induced by particle exposure. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.