Macrophage plasminogen activator: Modulation of enzyme production by anti-inflammatory steroids, mitotic inhibitors, and cyclic nucleotides

Abstract

Plasminogen activator production by cultured mouse peritoneal macrophages can be modulated in vitro by low concentrations of various pharmacologically active molecules. Glucocorticoid hormones and their synthetic derivatives, as well as cholera toxin, colchicine, and vinblastine markedly inhibit production of this enzyme without affecting other important macrophage functions. The effect of glucocorticoids is of particular interest, both because their relative in vivo anti-inflammatory potencies correlate exactly with their effect on plasminogen activator production in culture and because this effect occurs at near physiological concentrations. In view of the correlations established in other..