Prevention of the immunosuppressive effects of glucocorticosteroids by cell-free factors from adjuvant-activated accessory cells.

Cultured mouse spleen cells are protected from the immunosuppressive effects of glucocorticosteroid hormones by prior treatment with bacterial adjuvants. The mechanisms by which such protection is acquired were further invgestigated in this study. Cell-free factors, termed glucocorticosteroid response modifying factors (GRMF), were obtained from the supernatant fluid of normal resident murine peritoneal macrophages activated in vitro by treatment with lipopolysaccharide.