Studies on the induction of the interleukin-6 promoter in cell lines of human and simian origin.
In a number of eukaryotic cell types, the promoter of the interleukin-6 (IL-6) gene is inducible by several agents. We studied this inducibility in two human (MG63 and HeLa H21) and four simian cell lines (BSC-1, AP8, CV-1 and VERO). Furthermore, we also investigated whether this inducibility was maintained when a heterologous gene was placed under control of the human IL-6 promoter. As a heterologous gene we used the Simian Virus 40 (SV40) large T antigen, because of its stimulatory effects on SV40-based expression vectors. For the human cell lines tested, we observed that this gene was equally well induced and controlled as the endogenous IL-6 gene. In contrast, the aforementioned simian cell lines were only slightly inducible for IL-6 production; moreover, after transfection with the IL-6 promoter--SV40 T antigen gene construct, a continuous, low level of expression was found, even in those lines which only showed a low (CV-1) or no (BSC-1) endogenous IL-6 background. This apparent difference between the human and simian cells analyzed does not reflect a species specificity, but presumably is related to a different differentiation state of these cells. Furthermore, the IL-6 gene induction could be correlated with activation of the required transcription factor NF-kappa B.
Vanhoenacker
P
P
Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Gent University, Belgium.
Fiers
W
W
Haegeman
G
G
D000818:Animals; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D002460:Cell Line; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D005814:Genes, Viral; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000235:genetics*; D007668:Kidney / Q000166:cytology; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000096:biosynthesis; D011323:Primates / Q000235:genetics*; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D013539:Simian virus 40 / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D014162:Transfection / Q000235:genetics; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D014709:Vero Cells
D000956:Antigens, Viral; D015850:Interleukin-6; D016328:NF-kappa B