Analysis of the in vitro effect of exogenous nitric oxide on human lymphocytes

We investigated the role of endogenous or exogenous nitric oxide (NO) on human lymphocyte function. We used sodium nitroprusside, nitroglycerine, S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine, sodium nitrite and S-nitroso-L-glutathione as NO-generating compounds. All agents were used at doses that do not produce direct cytotoxicity as measured by trypan blue exclusion as well as chromium-51 release assay. The immune responses examined were peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) proliferation and IL-2 production after activation with OKT3 and PHA; allogeneic mediated proliferation and cell mediated cytotoxicity (CML) in MLR; IgG and IgM production after PBL activation with Con-A; proliferation and expression of IFN-γ and IL-4 mRNA after activation of allogeneic CD4+T cell clones. Cytokine mRNA expression was measured by reverse transcriptase PCR. Our results show that proliferating lymphocytes do not produce a detectable amount of NO as measured by the Griess reaction. In separate experiments, on of NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA) did not affect lymphocyte proliferation. Sodium nitroprusside and nitroglycerine exerted a dose dependent antimitogenic effect, inhibited cytokine production and expression, CML generation and antibody production. DNA gel electrophoresis showed no evidence for enhanced programmed cell death. The antimitogenic effect could not be blocked by the NO scavengers, hemoglobin or methylene blue. In contrast, the other nitric oxide generating compounds did not inhibit lymphocyte mitogenesis.