BackgroundThe protective immune response against Mycobacterium tuberculosis relies both on antigen-presenting cells and on T lymphocytes. In patients

Background: L-arginine is the common substrate for the two isoforms of arginase. Arginase I, highly expressed in the liver and arginase II mainly expressed in the kidney. Arginase I-producing myeloid derived suppressor cells have been shown to inhibit T-cell function by the depletion of L-arginine. On the other hand, arginase II has been detected in patients with cancer and is thought to metabolize L-arginine to L-ornithine needed to sustain rapid tumor growth; however its role in L-arginine depletion is unclear. Thus, in tumor biology, L-arginine metabolism may play a dual role in tumor growth and in the induction of T cell dysfunction. Therefore, we studied in murine renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cell lines, the effect of arginase II on tumor cell proliferation and L-arginine depletion. The effect of arginase inhibitors on cell proliferation was also tested. Methods: Three murine renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) cell lines were tested for the presence of arginase. nor-NOHA, an arginase inhibitor was used to substantiate the effect of arginase on cell growth and L-arginine depletion. Amino acid levels were tested by HPLC. Results: Our results show that mRCC cell lines express only arginase II and were able to deplete L-arginine from the medium. Cell growth was independent of the amount of arginase activity expressed by the cells. nor-NOHA significantly (P = 0.01) reduced arginase II activity and suppressed cell growth in cells exhibiting high arginase activity. The depletion of L-arginine by mRCC induced the decrease expression of CD3ζ a key element for T-cell function. Conclusion: The results of this study show for the first time that arginase II produced by RCC cell lines depletes L-arginine resulting in decreased expression of CD3ζ. These results indicate that RCC cell lines expressing arginase II can modulate the L-arginine metabolic pathway to regulate both cell growth and T-cell function. Blocking arginase may lead to a decrease in RCC cell growth and aid in restoring immune function by increasing L-arginine availability for T-cell use. Understanding the interplay between arginase II and its interaction with the immune system may provide future therapeutic benefits to treat patients with RCC.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) remains one of the most resistant tumors to systemic chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy. Despite great progress in understanding the basic biology of RCC, the rate of responses in animal models and clinical trials using interferons (IFNs) has not improved significantly. It is likely that the lack of responses can be due to the tumor's ability to develop tumor escape strategies. Currently, the use of targeted therapies has improved the clinical outcomes of patients with RCC and is associated with an increase of Th1-cytokine responses (IFNγ), indicating the importance of IFNγ in inhibiting tumor proliferation. Thus, the present study was designed to investigate a new mechanism by which IFNγ mediates direct anti-proliferative effects against murine renal cell carcinoma cell lines. When cultured RCC cell lines were exposed to murine recombinant IFNγ, a dose dependent growth inhibition in CL-2 and CL-19 cells was observed; this effect was not observed in Renca cells. Growth inhibition in CL-2 and CL-19 cell lines was associated with the intracellular induction of nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) protein, resulting in a sustained elevation of nitric oxide (NO) and citrulline, and a decrease in arginase activity. The inhibition of cell proliferation appears to be due to an arrest in the cell cycle. The results indicate that in certain RCC cell lines, IFNγ modulates L-arginine metabolism by shifting from arginase to iNOS activity, thereby developing a potent inhibitory mechanism to encumber tumor cell proliferation and survival. Elucidating the cellular events triggered by IFNγ in murine RCC cell lines will permit anti-tumor effects to be exploited in the development of new combination therapies that interfere with L-arginine metabolism to effectively combat RCC in patients.