We have previously reported that human neutrophils pretreated with tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and then exposed to a variety of agents such as immune complexes, zymosan, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), C5a, fMLP, or granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), undergo a dramatic stimulation of apoptosis, suggesting that TNF-alpha is able to prime an apoptotic death programme which can be rapidly triggered by different stimuli. We report here that this response involves the participation of Mac-1 (CD11b/CD18), is dependent on caspases 3, 8 and 9, and is associated with both a loss of mitochondrial transmembrane potential and a down-regulation in expression of the anti-apoptotic protein, Mcl-1. Interestingly, we also found that the anti-apoptotic cytokine interleukin-1 (IL-1) improves the ability of TNF-alpha to promote apoptosis, supporting the notion than TNF-alpha, acting together with IL-1, may favour the depletion of neutrophils from the inflammatory areas during the course of acute inflammation.