Arachidonate and NADPH oxidase synergise with iNOS to induce death in macrophages: mechanisms of inflammatory degeneration.

Inflammation contributes to many pathologies, but the mechanisms by which inflammation induces cell death are unclear. We investigated interactions between inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), phagocytic NADPH oxidase (PHOX) and arachidonate in inducing cell death in a J774 macrophage cell line. Little or no cell death was induced by: (i) induction of iNOS with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and interferon-gamma (INFgamma), (ii) activation of PHOX with phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA), or (iii) addition of arachidonate. However, when iNOS activation was combined with PHOX activation by PMA or with arachidonate, there was extensive necrotic death of macrophages. In both cases death was accompanied by peroxynitrite production, and was blocked by removal of peroxynitrite (by FeTPPS), removal of superoxide (by superoxide dismutase), inhibition of iNOS (by 1400W) or inhibition of PARP (by IsoQ or DPQ). However, when iNOS induction was combined with PMA, death was blocked by a PHOX inhibitor (apocynin). Whereas when iNOS induction was combined with arachidonate, death was not blocked by apocynin, but was blocked by a cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitor (ibuprofen), suggesting that the source of superoxide contributing to cell death differs in these two conditions.