Rapamycin and FK506 differentially inhibit mast cell cytokine production and cytokine-induced proliferation and act as reciprocal antagonists

SM Hatfield, JS Mynderse and NW Roehm

Department of Pulmonary and Leukotriene Research, Lilly Research Laboratories, Indianapolis, Indiana.

We have previously demonstrated that cyclosporine (CSA) and FK506 are able to selectively inhibit cytokine production by murine mast cell lines at concentrations comparable to those observed with thymus- derived lymphocytes (T cells). The selectivity of these effects were demonstrated by the failure of CSA and FK506 to inhibit cytokine- induced mast cell proliferation at equivalent or higher concentrations. In this report, we examined the ability of rapamycin (RAP) to inhibit cytokine production and cytokine-induced proliferation by a factor- dependent murine mast cell line and compared its activity to that of the structurally related macrolide FK506. The mast cell clone, MC/9, was stimulated to produce cytokines with phorbol myristate acetate plus the calcium ionophore A23187, or to proliferate in response to exogenous cytokines such as interleukin-3 and interleukin-4, produced by the helper T cell clone D10.G4. RAP did not inhibit cytokine production by MC/9, even at concentrations greater than 1000 nM. FK506 and CSA inhibited cytokine production with IC50 of 0.8 and 16.2 nM, respectively. In contrast to its lack of effect on cytokine production, RAP potently inhibited cytokine-induced proliferation of MC/9 cells with an IC50 of 1.9 nM. Because RAP and FK506 are structurally related and yet have divergent biological effects, we examined the ability of RAP to antagonize inhibitory effects of FK506 on mast cell cytokine production and the ability of FK506 to antagonize inhibitory effects of RAP on cytokine-induced mast cell proliferation. The addition of RAP in molar excess reversed inhibition of mast cell cytokine production mediated by FK506, but not that of CSA.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Volume 261, Issue 3, pp. 970-976, 06/01/1992
Copyright © 1992 by American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

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