title: Detection and quantitation of cells secreting IL-6 under physiologic conditions in BALB/c mice.
abstract: IL-6 is a pleiotropic cytokine involved in the regulation of hematopoiesis and lymphocyte activation. An extremely sensitive ELIspot assay was developed to detect and enumerate individual cells secreting IL-6 in normal BALB/c mice. Under physiologic conditions, the frequency of cells producing IL-6 in the bone marrow, spleen, and mesenteric lymph nodes of normal adult animals was approximately 0.5, 0.1, and 0.01%, respectively. FACS analysis revealed that macrophages and Mac1- B220- cells accounted for the vast majority of IL-6 production in the bone marrow, whereas T and B lymphocytes accounted for 4% and 38% of IL-6 production in the spleen. Simultaneous studies comparing cell number with IL-6 levels indicated that the average activated cell produced approximately 85 molecules of IL-6/s.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Retrovirus Research, Food and Drug Administration, Bethesda, MD 20892.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shirai
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Holmes
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Klinman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000378:metabolism; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D010641:Phenotype; D013154:Spleen / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D015850:Interleukin-6