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)

To investigate a possible role of cytokines in parvovirus-mediated suppression of tumorigenesis, we tested in cell culture whether parvoviruses are able to induce interferon (IFN)-beta, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha or interleukin-6 (IL-6). Infection of rodent or human cells with the parvoviruses minute virus of mice (MVM), H-1 or adeno-associated virus (AAV) types 2 or 5 failed to induce expression of the luciferase or beta-galactosidase reporter genes transfected into these cells as constructs containing an IFN-beta promoter. Parvoviruses did weakly induce synthesis of TNF-alpha and of IL-6 in cell culture and could slightly enhance synthesis of these cytokines when induced by other agents. These in vitro data suggest that the rather unspecific tumor-suppressive properties of parvoviruses are unlikely to be attributable to stimulation of the synthesis of IFN, TNF or IL-6.
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PMID:Parvoviruses are inefficient in inducing interferon-beta, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, or interleukin-6 in mammalian cells. 152 25

Intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of a mineral oil such as pristane induces a chronic inflammatory response in mice. This is characterized by a large influx of macrophages and other inflammatory cells into the peritoneal cavity for months after injection of the oil. By using the B9 cell bioassay, it was found that injection of pristane caused a marked and prolonged elevation of interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels in the peritoneal cavities of the mice. IL-6 was undetectable (less than 15 U/mL) in the peritoneal fluids of unprimed mice and during the first week after injecting pristane. From 4 to 20 weeks, the concentration of IL-6 increased to an apparent plateau with concentrations ranging from 200 to 2,000 U/mL. Increasing the dose of pristane did not substantially increase the peritoneal levels of IL-6 established at 20 weeks after pristane treatment. At later times (by day 250), the level decreased to 263 +/- 217 U/mL. However, mice that developed plasma cell tumors around day 300 showed high levels of IL-6 in the ascites fluid (650 to 2,400 U/mL). Serum levels of IL-6 were also elevated in pristane-primed mice but were substantially lower than those found in the peritoneal cavity. Chronic administration of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug indomethacin decreased the levels of IL-6 by 75% to 80%. Experiments performed in vitro showed that pristane-elicited macrophages secreted low levels of IL-6 constitutively and high levels of IL-6 in the presence of lipopolysaccharide. Both IL-6 and prostaglandin E2 production were inhibited by addition of indomethacin to macrophage cultures in vitro. Treatment of mice with pristane may provide a model system for studying the inflammatory pathways that control IL-6 levels in vivo. The relevance of these results to elucidation of the role of IL-6 in plasma cell tumorigenesis is discussed.
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PMID:Elevation of interleukin-6 in response to a chronic inflammatory stimulus in mice: inhibition by indomethacin. 161 Oct 85

A 38-year-old male was admitted in January 1984 due to lymphadenopathies with hyperimmunoglobulinemia with a serum IgG level of 2,872 mg/dl. Following this, he was observed as an outpatient in regard to lymphadenopathies of unknown origin. In 1989, after the fourth lymph node biopsy he was diagnosed as having idiopathic plasmacytic lymphadenopathy with polyclonal hyperimmunoglobulinemia. At that time his serum IgG level was 8,090 mg/dl. The elevated serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) level, up to 21.1 pg/ml, was particularly interesting, because IL-6 is involved in the oncogenesis of plasmacytoma/myeloma. The patient also had thrombocytosis, hematuria, and a serum increased level of C reactive protein which seemed to be related to the effects of IL-6 i.e. thrombopoiesis, induction of the proliferation of mesenchymal cells, and induction of the production of acute phase proteins by hepatocytes, respectively. Even though he displayed no outward symptoms before and after treatment with prednisolone and melphalan, elevated immunoglobulin levels were still present.
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PMID:[Idiopathic plasmacytic lymphadenopathy with polyclonal hyperimmunoglobulinemia with elevated level of serum interleukin-6]. 163 73

Interleukin-6, IL-6, is a pleiotropic cytokine which plays a central role in defense mechanisms, including the immune response, acute phase reaction and hematopoiesis. Abnormal expression of the IL-6 gene has been suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis of a variety of diseases, especially rheumatoid arthritis, Castleman's disease, mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis, multiple myeloma and Kaposi's sarcoma. In the case of multiple myeloma and Kaposi's sarcoma, the existence of an IL-6-IL-6 receptor autocrine loop has been implicated in the oncogenesis process. On the other hand, IL-6 has a potent anti-tumor activity against certain types of tumors. This anti-tumor effect is mediated by in vivo induction of tumor specific cytotoxic T cells and in part by a growth inhibitory activity of IL-6.
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PMID:The evidence for interleukin-6 as an autocrine growth factor in malignancy. 164 91

A human plasma cell leukaemia cell line (HSM-2) and a subclone (HSM-2.3) have been established from the bone marrow of a patient with bi-phenotypic leukaemia. Proliferation assays using a variety of cytokines demonstrated that HSM-2 proliferated in response to recombinant interleukin-6 (rIL-6), but did not respond to rIL-1, rIL-2, rIL-3, rIL-4, rIL-5, recombinant granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (rG-CSF), or recombinant granulocyte-macrophage-colony stimulating factor (rGM-CSF), and that HSM-2.3 responded to rIL-3 and rIL-6. HSM-2 expressed the CD38 (OKT10), PCA-1, cytoplasmic-IgM, and surface kappa light chain. HSM-2.3 expressed the CD14 (My4), CD33 (My9), CD38 (OKT10), CD19 (B4), CD24 (OKB2), CD10 (J5), PCA-1. HSM-2 and HSM-2.3 are useful tools for analysing the possible role of IL-3 and IL-6 in the oncogenesis of plasma cell leukaemia.
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PMID:Establishment and characterization of a plasma cell leukaemia cell line dependent for growth on IL-6 and a bi-phenotypic subclone dependent upon both IL-3 and IL-6. 206 60

Interleukin 6 (IL-6) was originally characterized as a B-cell differentiation factor, responsible for the terminal maturation of activated B cells to immunoglobulin producing cells. Recent works reveal that IL-6 has a wide variety of biological functions on various cells. In particular, IL-6 has been shown to augment the growth of freshly isolated human myeloma cells, and the myeloma cells constitutively produce IL-6 and express IL-6 receptors. Moreover, it has been shown that anti-IL-6 antibody can inhibit the in vitro growth of the myeloma cells. This is direct evidence that an autocrine loop is operating in freshly isolated myeloma cells, and that a constitutive production of IL-6 and activation of the IL-6 gene could be involved in the oncogenesis of human myeloma.
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PMID:Cytokines as autocrine growth factors in malignancies. 270 35

Apoptosis is an important cellular process by which superfluous or unwanted cells are deleted from an organism during tissue remodeling and differentiation. Recent studies have demonstrated the role of this programmed cell death or "controlled cell suicide" in the physiological function of an organism. Suppression of apoptosis increases the susceptibility of an individual to malignancy whereas uncontrolled cell death is associated with degenerative diseases. Normal development of both female and male gonads is characterized by massive cell death. More than 99% of ovarian follicles endowed at early life are destined to undergo apoptosis and the exhaustion of these follicles serves as a "clock" for female reproductive senescence. In the testis, up to 75% of male germ cells also undergo apoptosis, perhaps as a mechanism to delete superfluous or defective germ cells. Gonadal cell apoptosis provides valuable models to study hormonal regulation of apoptosis. In the ovary, gonadotropins, estrogens, growth hormone, growth factors (IGFI, EGF/TGF-alpha, basic FGF), cytokine (interleukin-1 beta) and nitric oxide act in concert to ensure the survival of preovulatory follicles. In contrast, androgens, interleukin-6 and gonadal GnRH-like peptide are apoptotic factors. Developmental studies further indicate that fractions of endowed follicles are recruited throughout the reproductive life whereas most of the primordial follicles are "arrested" at the initial stage of development for a prolonged time. Because a transcriptional factor WT1 is expressed in high levels in follicles at early stages of development and because WT1 over-expression represses the promoter activity of inhibin-alpha gene, this nuclear protein may be important in the maintenance of follicles at early stages of development. Once a cohort of follicles is recruited to grow, it is destined to undergo apoptosis unless rescued by survival factors. After puberty onset and under gonadotropin stimulation, some of the growing antral follicles are "selected" to continue their final maturation and secrete high levels of estrogens to trigger ovulation. Following repeated cycles of recruitment, atresia or ovulation, the follicle reserve is exhausted, thus signaling the onset of reproductive senescence. Although the somatic granulosa cell is the major cell type undergoing apoptosis in the ovary, the germ cells in the testis also exhibit signs of apoptotic cell demise. In the testis, gonadotropins and androgens act as survival factors whereas exposure to elevated temperature in cryptorchid testes increases apoptosis. In the seasonally breeding hamster model, photoperiod-entrained regression and recrudescence of testis tissue serves as a unique natural model of apoptosis. With recent advances in our understanding of the cellular mechanism of apoptosis, including the elucidation of the Ced9/bc12 and Ced3/ICE family of proteins, further investigation of gonadal apoptosis may lead to a better understanding of gonadal degenerative disorders (such as premature ovarian failure and oligospermia), reproductive senescence and tumorigenesis. The gonadal model should also be valuable in studying the regulation of intracellular apoptosis genes by external hormonal signals.
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PMID:Gonadal cell apoptosis. 870 Oct 90

Activation of the N-myc2 oncogene by integration of woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) DNA is a central event in woodchuck liver oncogenesis. In this study, we have evaluated the influence of several cellular and viral trans-acting factors and mediators of inflammation on N-myc2 promoter activity in hepatoma cell lines. Ets oncoproteins, including Ets1, Ets2 and PEA3 efficiently activated a chimeric N-myc2 promoter/luciferase reporter gene. By electrophoretic mobility shift assays, we show that Etsl and Ets2 proteins can efficiently bind two consensus Ets sites located within a 59 bp sequence upstream of the N-myc2 transcription start site. Site-directed mutagenesis of these Ets-binding motifs abolished transactivation of the N-myc2 promoter by Ets proteins. Addition of interleukin-6 (IL-6) induced a weak but reproducible activation of the N-myc2 promoter, while IL-1 was ineffective. We further show that the N-myc2 promoter can be transactivated by the hepadna-virus X protein, and that distal promoter sequences are required for both IL-6 and X responsiveness. Similar effects of these factors were observed in the context of the N-myc2 promoter activated by WHV cis-regulatory elements. In view of the high-level expression of the N-myc2 oncogene in most woodchuck liver tumors, the Ets oncoproteins, inflammation-associated cytokine IL-6 and the viral X transactivator might play important roles in hepadnavirus-associated tumorigenesis.
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PMID:Cellular and viral trans-acting factors modulate N-myc2 promoter activity in woodchuck liver tumors. 928 65

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) latency gene expression in lymphoblastoid cell lines is regulated by EBNA2. However, the factors regulating viral expression in EBV-associated tumors that do not express EBNA2 are poorly understood. In EBV-associated tumors, EBNA1 and frequently LMP1 are synthesized. We found that an alternative latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) promoter, L1-TR, located within the terminal repeats is active in both nasopharyngeal carcinoma and Hodgkin's disease tissues. Examination of the L1-TR and the standard ED-L1 LMP1 promoters in electrophoretic mobility shift assays revealed that both promoters contain functional STAT binding sites. Further, both LMP1 promoters responded in reporter assays to activation of JAK-STAT signaling. Cotransfection of JAK1 or v-Src or treatment of cells with the cytokine interleukin-6 upregulated expression from ED-L1 and L1-TR reporter plasmids. Cotransfection of a dominant negative STAT3 beta revealed that STAT3 is likely to be the biologically relevant STAT for EBNA1 Qp and LMP1 L1-TR promoter regulation. In contrast, LMP1 expression from ED-L1 was not abrogated by STAT3 beta, indicating that the two LMP1 promoters are regulated by different STAT family members. Taken together with the previous demonstration of JAK-STAT activation of Qp driven EBNA1 expression, this places two of the EBV genes most commonly expressed in tumors under the control of the same signal transduction pathway. Immunohistochemical analyses of nasopharyngeal carcinoma tumors revealed that STAT3, STAT5, and STAT1 are constitutively activated in these tumors while STAT3 is constitutively activated in the malignant cells of Hodgkin's disease. We hypothesize that chronic or aberrant STAT activation may be both a necessary and predisposing event for EBV-driven tumorigenesis in immunocompetent individuals.
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PMID:Linkage between STAT regulation and Epstein-Barr virus gene expression in tumors. 1122 18

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a pleiotropic cytokine that is capable of modulating the diverse functions of cells such as acute phase responses and inflammation. Excessive or insufficient production of IL-6 may contribute to certain diseases of the skin. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible role of IL-6 in the tumorigenesis of basal cell carcinoma (BCC). Initially, we transfected IL-6 expression vector, under the control of a CMV promoter, into human BCC cells and successfully obtained IL-6-overexpressing clones (BCC/IL-6-c1 and BCC/IL-6-c2) and a mixture (BCC/IL-6). DNA synthesis assay determined using (3)H-thymidine pulse incorporation revealed that IL-6-expressing BCC cells exhibited a much higher DNA synthesis rate than the neo control or parental BCC cells. We also detected a greater abundance of IL-6-expressing cell colonies formed in soft agar than in the vector control cells. Furthermore, BCC/IL-6 cells, but not vector control cells, were resistant to UV and photodynamic therapy (PDT)-induced apoptosis, as confirmed using DNA fragmentation and morphologic change analyses. Immunoblot analysis showed that Mcl-1, an anti-apoptotic protein, was specifically up-regulated IL-6 transfectants but not in the control cells. Transient transfection of IL-6 transfectants with antisense mcl-1 greatly enhanced their apoptosis frequency by UV treatment. In tumorigenesis assay, IL-6 transfected clones formed tumors in nude mice more rapidly than the control cells. These tumors appeared to be highly vascularized using pathological examination. Supportive of this finding, we found that IL-6 transfected cells expressed elevated levels of two angiogenic factors, cyclooxygenase (Cox)-2 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). These results suggest that overexpression of IL-6 enhances the tumorigenic activity of BCC cells by both suppressing apoptosis and actively promoting angiogenesis.
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PMID:Overexpression of interleukin-6 in human basal cell carcinoma cell lines increases anti-apoptotic activity and tumorigenic potency. 1131 47


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