Protein P37 of mycoplasma hyorhinis induces secretion of TNF-α from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells

High mycoplasmal infection ratio in gastric cancer tissues suggests a possible association between my-coplasma infection and tumorigenesis.Because TNF-α plays an important role in carcinogenesis caused by microbes in-fection and P37 is a major immunogen of mycoplasma hy-orhinis(M.hyor.),investigating whether P37 could induce expression and secretion of TNF-α will be very significant fo elucidate the possible molecular mechanism of gastric car-cinogenesis involved with M.hyor.At the present study,we cloned full gene of p37 by PCR and mutated the 7 codes of TGA into TGG firstly,then expressed the P37 protein suc-cessfully with pGEX-4T-1 vector in E.coli,which was veri-fied with Western bolt.By RT-PCR and sensitive L929 cell toxic assay,we found that P37 protein could induce expres-sion and secretion of TNF-α from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells,and the inducing activity of P37 could be dramatically blocked by McAb PD4.These results suggest that the induction of TNF-α secretion by P37 probably plays an importan role in diseases caused by M.hyor.infection and needs to be further investigated.