The effects of human recombinant tumor necrosis factor on glioma-derived cell lines: cellular proliferation, cytotoxicity, morphological and radioreceptor studies.

To determine whether tumor necrosis factor is of potential value for the treatment of human malignant gliomas, we studied the effects of human recombinant tumor necrosis factor (rTNF-alpha) on the morphology, incorporation of tritiated thymidine, and proliferation of 5 established cell lines derived from human malignant gliomas and 3 normal human brain cell cultures. A radioreceptor analysis for rTNF-alpha was performed on all cell lines and cultures. Two of the 5 human glioma cell lines (SF-188 and U 343 MG-A) demonstrated a marked decrease (60% or less of untreated controls) in the uptake of tritiated thymidine when treated with rTNF-alpha at a concentration of 40 U/ml; rTNF-alpha at 100 U/ml had antiproliferative and cytotoxic effects on both cell lines.