Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P05231 (interleukin-6)
 23,907 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine whose role in osteoclastic bone resorption has not been clearly defined. Therefore, we have used giant cells, which express many features of osteoclasts, from giant cell tumors of bone as a model to examine the role that IL-6 may play in human osteoclastic bone resorption. We found that conditioned medium from 24-h cultures of highly purified giant cells (10(6)/ml) contained large amounts of IL-6 (37.9 +/- 8.8 ng/ml), similar to the amount of IL-6 produced by tumor stromal cells (29.8 +/- 11.5 ng/ml). Giant cells and stromal cells from giant cell tumors expressed IL-6 mRNA, as indicated by polymerase chain reaction analysis and in situ hybridization studies, and immunohistochemical techniques demonstrated that the giant cells expressed IL-6 receptors. The addition of a neutralizing antibody to IL-6 significantly decreased the area of dentine resorbed by purified giant cells in a dose-dependent manner, and the addition of IL-6 to cultures of purified giant cells pretreated with anti-IL-6 restored the resorbing capacity of the giant cells. These data suggest that IL-6 may act as both an autocrine and a paracrine factor for human osteoclasts and play an important role in the bone-resorbing capacity of these cells.
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PMID:Evidence for an autocrine/paracrine role for interleukin-6 in bone resorption by giant cells from giant cell tumors of bone. 142 21

Giant-cell arteritis is an immune-mediated disease characterized by granulomatous infiltrates in the wall of medium-size and large arteries. The immunopathology consists of 2 components. Excessive cytokine production (for example, of interleukin-1 and interleukin-6) induces systemic inflammation with an exuberant acute-phase response. In parallel, interferon-gamma, which is released by T cells captured in the arterial wall, activates tissue-injurious macrophages. In response to the immune injury, the artery generates hyperplasia of the intima that leads to luminal occlusion and subsequent tissue ischemia. Despite the systemic character of the disease, distinct vascular territories are preferentially affected. On the basis of the predominant involvement, clinical subtypes can be distinguished: cranial giant-cell arteritis with ischemic complications in the eye, the face, and the central nervous system; large-vessel giant-cell arteritis with occlusions in the subclavian or axillary vessels; aortic giant-cell arteritis; giant-cell arteritis presenting as an intense systemic inflammatory syndrome with nonstenosing vasculitis; and "isolated" polymyalgia rheumatica with myalgias, systemic inflammation, and subclinical vasculitis. Temporal artery biopsy remains the diagnostic procedure of choice to detect arteritis in cranial vessels. In other vascular territories, giant-cell arteritis is most commonly diagnosed by vascular imaging. Laboratory studies characteristically document the marked elevations of nonspecific acute-phase reactants, such as C-reactive protein and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Cytokines, such as interleukin-6, that induce the acute-phase reaction are currently being explored as more sensitive biological markers of disease activity. Corticosteroids are highly effective in suppressing systemic inflammation, but they do not eliminate the immune responses in the vessel wall. In general, the clinical outcome of giant-cell arteritis is excellent, and efforts must now concentrate on tailoring therapies to the needs of the individual patient.
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PMID:Giant-cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica. 1367 49