ABSTRACT. We previously demonstrated that certain biologic activities in human milk were partially blocked by antibodies directed against human tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a). In this study, immunochemical methods were used to verify the presence of TNF-a in human milk obtained during the first few days of lactation. Gel filtration revealed the presence of TNF-a by RIA in molecular weight fractions between 80 and 195 kD. TNF-a could not be detected consistently by conventional Western blotting or cytotoxic assays. Although immunoreactive bands were detected by a Western blot-lZ5I protein A technique in TNF-a-positive fractions from gel filtration, those bands proved to be nonspecific. TNF-a in milk was reliably quantified by the competitive RIA. Those studies revealed that the concentrations of TNF-a in milk were 620 +.
FMLP, N-formyl-I-methionyl-I-leucyl-I-phenylalanineIt is widely accepted that much of the protective effect of human milk (1) is due to a direct-acting antimicrobial system that consists of humoral and cellular components (2-6). The leukocytes are of particular interest because they include not only neutrophils and lymphocytes but also macrophages (4-6) that appear morphologically to be activated (4, 5). The results of recent studies (7) are consistent with those previous observations. In those investigations, human milk macrophages moved faster than human peripheral blood mononuclear leukocytes in a threedimensional, relatively adherence-independent assay. It was subsequently demonstrated that the increased motility of those macrophages was due in large part to either TNF-a or TNF-a- inducing factors in human milk. When blood mononuclear cells were incubated in whole human colostrum or its whey protein fraction, the motility of the blood monocytes increased to that of milk macrophages (8). The activity was abrogated by trypsin and considerably decreased by polyclonal antibodies to rhTNFa. Three peaks of chemokinetic activity, corresponding to 50-55, 25, and 10-17 kD, were demonstrated by gel filtration chromatography. The chemokinetic activity peaks in human milk were blocked by antibodies to rhTNF-a. In addition, the studies suggested that some of the limited cytotoxic activity of human milk against murine L-929 cells was blocked by antibodies to rhTNF-a (8).In view of the pleiotropic effects of TNF-cu upon the immunologic system (9-19), it was important to verify whether TNFa or TNF-a-inducing agents are present in human milk in sufficient quantities to potentially affect the recipient infant. Indeed, the presence of sufficient amounts of those agents would suggest that human milk might affect the maturation of the defense systems of the infant. We investigated this question by examining human milk for TNF-a by immunochemical methods. Furthermore, we sought to determine whether the leukocytes in human milk are a source of this cytokine by examining them for TNF-a and for its RNA.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Subject selection. This study was approved by the InstitutionalReview Board for Human Resea...