Endogenous tumor necrosis factor functions as a resistant factor against adriamycin.
One of the mechanisms of cytotoxicity by tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and heat is the induction of reactive oxygen molecules. Cells producing endogenous tumor necrosis factor (enTNF) show resistance to the cytotoxicity of exogenous TNF and heat by inducing manganous superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) to scavenge the reactive oxygen molecules. Intracellular hydroxyl radical production is also involved in adriamycin-induced cytotoxicity. In this study, we therefore examined the possibility that enTNF may act as a protective protein against adriamycin-induced cytotoxicity in a manner similar to that in which it protects against exogenous TNF and heat. Adriamycin-sensitive L-M (mouse tumorigenic fibroblast) cells, originally expressing no enTNF, were transfected with an expression vector which directs the synthesis of non-secretory-type human TNF (enTNF). The stable transformants became resistant to adriamycin with increased levels of MnSOD. Conversely, when HeLa (human uterine cervical cancer) cells, which originally produce an appreciable amount of enTNF, were transfected with an anti-sense TNF mRNA expression vector to inhibit enTNF synthesis, their intracellular MnSOD activity was suppressed and adriamycin sensitivity was enhanced. However, no alterations in expression of multidrug-resistant gene products--P-170 glycoprotein, glutathione S-transferase pi (GST-pi) and the intracellular concentrations of glutathione (GSH)--were observed in these transfectants as compared to their parent cells. These results indicate that enTNF exerts its intracellular protective effect against adriamycin-induced cytotoxicity by the same mechanism as that against exogenous TNF and heat, namely scavenging reactive oxygen with induced MnSOD.