Endogenous substance P mediates cold water stress-induced increase in interleukin-6 secretion from peritoneal macrophages.

Previous studies from this laboratory had shown that exposure of mice to cold water stress leads to an increase in the secretion of interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF alpha) from their peritoneal macrophages. We now report that the secretion of IL-6 from peritoneal macrophages is also increased after cold water stress and that the peptide substance P (SP) participates in this stress-induced response. The stress paradigm involved subjecting male C57BL/6J mice to 5 min swim tests in 10 +/- 2 degrees C water twice daily for 4 d. Cold water stress augments the lipopolysaccharide-induced IL-6 secretion from peritoneal macrophages, elevates immunoreactive SP (iSP) in the peritoneal wash fluid, and reduces iSP in certain peritoneum-containing tissues or organs (i.e., diaphragm, abdominal wall, ileum, and rectum). The 10 d stress time studies indicate that increased IL-6 secretion is positively related to elevated iSP in the peritoneal wash fluid and inversely related to reduced iSP in certain peritoneum-containing tissues. Pretreatment with capsaicin, which depletes SP in the sensory nerve endings, eliminates stress-control differences in the peritoneal wash fluid and in certain peritoneal tissues. Moreover, RP67,580, a specific SP antagonist, eliminates the cold water stress-induced augmentation of IL-6 secretion from peritoneal macrophages. These results suggest that cold water stress promotes the release of SP from peritoneal tissues into the peritoneal cavity, where it participates in the cold water stress-induced macrophage functional alterations.

Substance P primes murine peritoneal macrophages for an augmented proinflammatory cytokine response to lipopolysaccharide.

We have recently shown that substance P (SP) participates in the stress-induced modulation of elicited, peritoneal macrophage function. This study reports the in vitro effects of SP on macrophage activity. We show by an MTT bioassay that SP significantly increases cellular metabolic activity. We show by ELISA that preincubating (priming) the macrophages with SP, prior to the incubation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), results in a significant enhancement of proinflammatory cytokine secretion, relative to LPS alone. Finally, we show that somatostatin can antagonize the SP-induced enhancement of cytokine secretion. The above results demonstrate the importance of the temporal sequence in which stimuli are administered, in vitro, and indicate that SP can act as first signal in the cascade of macrophage activation. We postulate that stress, via the secretion of SP and other sensory neuropeptides, may play a role in the pathogenesis of certain inflammatory diseases of unknown etiology.