Time-dependent inhibition of tuberculin-induced lymphocyte DNA synthesis by a serine protease inhibitor

Diisopropylfluorophosphate (DFP), a group-specific irreversible inhibitor of serine proteases, has been shown to exert time-dependent inhibition of DNA synthesis of lymphocytes stimulated by three different B lymphocyte mitogens: purified protein derivative of tuberculin (PPD), endotoxin protein (EP), and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The time-dependent inhibition profile found in B lymphocytes is absent in concanavalin A (Con A)-stimulated T lymphocytes. Structural analogs of DFP, which have lost the phosphorylating ability, are not inhibitory. Inhibition of DNA synthesis by DFP is reversible in the first 8 hr of mitogenic stimulation. Maximal and irreversible inhibition by DFP occurs around the 16th hour of stimulation. These data support the postulate that a mitogenesis-linked protease, or proteases, in B lymphocytes is absent in the resting cells but is made available several hours before the initiation of DNA synthesis in the late G1 phase of the cell cycle.