Correlation between the anticellular and DNA fragmenting activities of tumor necrosis factor.

The treatment of cells sensitive to the anticellular effect of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) with TNF results in a degradation of their cellular DNA into DNA fragments that are multiples of 200 base pairs. TNF treatment of cells resistant to the anticellular effect of TNF, but bearing receptors for TNF, fails to result in any DNA fragmentation. Incubation conditions, such as temperature, the presence of metabolic inhibitors or amino acid deprivation, that modulate the effectiveness of TNF or affect the rate at which TNF exerts its anticellular effect have a similar effect on the ability of the TNF to generate DNA fragments. Thus the TNF-mediated DNA fragmentation and the rate at which it occurs correlates with the rate at which cells respond to the anticellular effect of TNF and, as such, might serve as a marker for the responsiveness of cells to TNF.