Jornal de Biologia de Citocinas

Abstrato

Influence of Culture Medium on Production of Nitric Oxide and Expression ofInducible Nitric Oxide Synthase by Activated Macrophages In Vitro

Fumio Amano

Activated macrophage phenotypes were influenced by the culture medium; a murine macrophage-like cell line, J774.1/JA-4, expresses different activated-macrophage phenotypes induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and/or interferon-γ (IFN-γ) when the cells are incubated in either Ham’s F-12 medium (F-12) or Dulbecco’s modified Eagle medium (DMEM). Among these phenotypes, NO production and iNOS expression are the most remarkably influenced by the medium; the induction of iNOS mRNA and iNOS protein is higher in DMEM than in F-12, but NO production by activated macrophages is less in DMEM than in F-12. These results suggest that the interpretation of the experimental results requires consideration of the possibility that the differences obtained by different laboratories were caused by the culture medium used.