These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Endogenous interleukin 6 can function as an in vivo growth- stimulatory factor for advanced-stage human melanoma cells.
    Author: Lu C, Sheehan C, Rak JW, Chambers CA, Hozumi N, Kerbel RS.
    Journal: Clin Cancer Res; 1996 Aug; 2(8):1417-25. PubMed ID: 9816316.
    Abstract:
    We have previously shown that a majority of human melanoma cell lines derived from early-stage lesions were growth inhibited by exogenous interleukin 6 (IL-6) in vitro, whereas cell lines from advanced-stage lesions were resistant to such IL-6-induced growth inhibition. Among the resistant melanoma cell lines, 50-60% constitutively produced IL-6, which appeared to function as a growth stimulator in vitro, based on the growth-suppressive effects of antisense oligonucleotides to the IL-6 gene. The present study was primarily aimed at evaluating whether endogenous IL-6 also functions in vivo as a growth modulator for IL-6-producing and -nonproducing melanoma cells. To do so, we first introduced an IL-6 expression vector into IL-6-nonproducing human melanoma cells using WM35, an early-stage (radial growth phase) cell line, the growth of which is normally inhibited by IL-6, and WM983A, an advanced-stage cell line, the growth of which in vitro is not affected by exogenous IL-6. None of the IL-6-producing transfectants showed a significant alteration in tumor growth in nude mice. Next, two IL-6-producing melanoma cell lines, both of which were derived from metastases, MeWo and WM9, and which are growth resistant to exogenously added IL-6, were transfected with an antisense IL-6 expression vector. Several transfectant clones manifested a constitutive decrease in IL-6 gene expression and protein production, and they also gave rise to much smaller tumors with slower growth rates and longer latency periods. However, these IL-6 antisense transfectants were not growth suppressed in in vitro cell cultures, relative to their respective parental controls. Taken together, the results demonstrate that endogenous IL-6 can indeed function as a growth stimulator for human cutaneous melanomas in vivo. This growth-stimulatory or survival mechanism remains to be clarified but may be paracrine rather than autocrine in nature.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]