The pathogenesis of HIV-1 infection is influenced by the immunoregulatory responses of the host. Macrophages present in the lymphoid tissue are susceptible to infection with HIV-1, but are relatively resistant to its cytopathic effects and serve as a reservoir for the virus during the course of disease. Previous investigators have demonstrated that increased serum levels of TNF-α contribute to the clinical symptoms of AIDS and that TNF-α stimulates the production of HIV-1 in chronically infected lymphocytic and monocytic cell lines by increasing HIV-1 gene expression. Although previous studies have suggested that TNF-α may increase HIV-1 infection of primary human mononuclear cells, some recent studies have indicated that TNF-α suppresses HIV-1 infection of macrophages. We now demonstrate that TNF-α suppresses HIV-1 replication in freshly infected peripheral blood monocytes (PBM) and alveolar macrophages (AM) in a dose-dependent manner. As TNF-α has been shown to increase the production of CC chemokine receptor (CCR5)-binding chemokines under certain circumstances, we hypothesized that TNF-α inhibits HIV-1 replication by increasing the expression of these HIV-suppressive factors. We now show that TNF-α treatment of PBM and AM increases the production of the CC chemokine, RANTES. Immunodepletion of RANTES alone or in combination with macrophage inflammatory protein-1α and-1β block the ability of TNF-α to suppress viral replication in PBM and AM. In addition, we found that TNF-α treatment reduces CCR5 expression on PBM and AM. These findings suggest that TNF-α plays a significant role in inhibiting monocytotropic strains of HIV-1 by two distinct, but complementary, mechanisms.