We examined whether the synthesis of inter leukin-1 or tumor necrosis factor, two cytokines with po tent inflammatory activities, is influenced by dietary sup plementation with n -3 fatty acids.Nine healthy volunteers added 18 g of fish-oil concen trate per day to their normal Western diet for six weeks. We used a radioimmunoassay to measure interleukin-1 (IL-1/3 and IL-1 a) and tumor necrosis factor produced in vitro by stimulated peripheral-blood mononuclear cells. With endotoxin as a stimulus, the synthesis of IL-1/3 was suppressed from 7.4±0.9 ng per milliliter at base line to 4.2±0.5 ng per milliliter after six weeks of supplementa tion (43 percent decrease; P = 0.048). Ten weeks after the end of n -3 supplementation, we observed a further decrease to 2.9±0.5 ng per milliliter (61 percent decrease;

Ischemia causes kidney tubular cell damage and abnormal renal function. The kidney is capable of morphological restoration of tubules and recovery of function. Recently, it has been suggested that cells repopulating the ischemically injured tubule derive from bone marrow stem cells. We studied kidney repair in chimeric mice expressing GFP or bacterial β-gal or harboring the male Y chromosome exclusively in bone marrow-derived cells. In GFP chimeras, some interstitial cells but not tubular cells expressed GFP after ischemic injury. More than 99% of those GFP interstitial cells were leukocytes. In female mice with male bone marrow, occasional tubular cells (0.06%) appeared to be positive for the Y chromosome, but deconvolution microscopy revealed these to be artifactual. In β-gal chimeras, some tubular cells also appeared to express β-gal as assessed by X-gal staining, but following suppression of endogenous (mammalian) β-gal, no tubular cells could be found that stained with X-gal after ischemic injury. Whereas there was an absence of bone marrow-derived tubular cells, many tubular cells expressed proliferating cell nuclear antigen, which is reflective of a high proliferative rate of endogenous surviving tubular cells. Upon i.v. injection of bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells, postischemic functional renal impairment was reduced, but there was no evidence of differentiation of these cells into tubular cells of the kidney. Thus, our data indicate that bone marrow-derived cells do not make a significant contribution to the restoration of epithelial integrity after an ischemic insult. It is likely that intrinsic tubular cell proliferation accounts for functionally significant replenishment of the tubular epithelium after ischemia.

Infiltrating leukocytes may be responsible for autoimmune disease. We hypothesized that the chemokine monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1 recruits macrophages and T cells into tissues that, in turn, are required for autoimmune disease. Using the MRL-Faslpr strain with spontaneous, fatal autoimmune disease, we constructed MCP-1–deficient MRL-Faslpr mice. In MCP-1–intact MRL-Faslprmice, macrophages and T cells accumulate at sites (kidney tubules, glomeruli, pulmonary bronchioli, lymph nodes) in proportion to MCP-1 expression. Deleting MCP-1 dramatically reduces macrophage and T cell recruitment but not proliferation, protects from kidney, lung, skin, and lymph node pathology, reduces proteinuria, and prolongs survival. Notably, serum immunoglobulin (Ig) isotypes and kidney Ig/C3 deposits are not diminished in MCP-1–deficient MRL-Faslpr mice, highlighting the requirement for MCP-1–dependent leukocyte recruitment to initiate autoimmune disease. However, MCP-1–deficient mice are not completely protected from leukocytic invasion. T cells surrounding vessels with meager MCP-1 expression remain. In addition, downstream effector cytokines/chemokines are decreased in MCP-1–deficient mice, perhaps reflecting a reduction of cytokine-expressing leukocytes. Thus, MCP-1 promotes MRL-Faslpr autoimmune disease through macrophage and T cell recruitment, amplified by increasing local cytokines/chemokines. We suggest that MCP-1 is a principal therapeutic target with which to combat autoimmune diseases.

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) is upregulated in renal parenchymal cells during kidney disease. To investigate whether MCP-1 promotes tubular and/or glomerular injury, we induced nephrotoxic serum nephritis (NSN) in MCP-1 genetically deficient mice. Mice were analyzed when tubules and glomeruli were severely damaged in the MCP-1-intact strain (day 7). MCP-1 transcripts increased fivefold in MCP-1-intact mice. MCP-1 was predominantly localized within cortical tubules (90%), and most cortical tubules were damaged, whereas few glomerular cells expressed MCP-1 (10%). By comparison, there was a marked reduction (>40%) in tubular injury in MCP-1-deficient mice (histopathology, apoptosis). MCP-1-deficient mice were not protected from glomerular injury (histopathology, proteinuria, macrophage influx). Macrophage accumulation increased adjacent to tubules in MCP-1-intact mice compared with MCP-1-deficient mice (70%, P < 0.005), indicating that macrophages recruited by MCP-1 induce tubular epithelial cell (TEC) damage. Lipopolysaccharide-activated bone marrow macrophages released molecules that induced TEC death that was not dependent on MCP-1 expression by macrophages or TEC. In conclusion, MCP-1 is predominantly expressed by TEC and not glomeruli, promotes TEC and not glomerular damage, and increases activated macrophages adjacent to TEC that damage TEC during NSN. Therefore, we suggest that blockage of TEC MCP-1 expression is a therapeutic strategy for some forms of kidney disease.

Tubular damage following ischemic renal injury is often reversible, and tubular epithelial cell (TEC) proliferation is a hallmark of tubular repair. Macrophages have been implicated in tissue repair, and CSF-1, the principal macrophage growth factor, is expressed by TECs. We therefore tested the hypothesis that CSF-1 is central to tubular repair using an acute renal injury and repair model, ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). Mice injected with CSF-1 following I/R exhibited hastened healing, as evidenced by decreased tubular pathology, reduced fibrosis, and improved renal function. Notably, CSF-1 treatment increased TEC proliferation and reduced TEC apoptosis. Moreover, administration of a CSF-1 receptor-specific (CSF-1R-specific) antibody after I/R increased tubular pathology and fibrosis, suppressed TEC proliferation, and heightened TEC apoptosis. To determine the contribution of macrophages to CSF-1-dependent renal repair, we assessed the effect of CSF-1 on I/R in mice in which CD11b + cells were genetically ablated and determined that macrophages only partially accounted for CSF-1-dependent tubular repair. We found that TECs expressed the CSF-1R and that this receptor was upregulated and coexpressed with CSF-1 in TECs following renal injury in mice and humans. Furthermore, signaling via the CSF-1R stimulated proliferation and reduced apoptosis in human and mouse TECs. Taken together, these data suggest that CSF-1 mediates renal repair by both a macrophage-dependent mechanism and direct autocrine/paracrine action on TECs.