title: Interleukin-6 increases the levels of cyclic GMP and nitrite in rat hippocampal slices.
abstract: We examined the effect of interleukin-6 on the levels of cGMP and nitrite in rat hippocampal slices. Interleukin-6 at 400 ng/ml time dependently increased the content of cGMP of slices after incubation for 1, 2, 3, and 4 h, and the effect of interleukin-6 was maximal at 2 h post-incubation. In addition, exposure of slices to interleukin-6 at 80, 400 and 2000 ng/ml or at 16, 80 and 400 ng/ml for 2 h significantly elevated the cGMP level and nitrite level, respectively, in a concentration-dependent manner. Also, 0.1 mM NG-nitro-L-arginine alone showed no effect on either the cGMP level or the nitrite level. However when incubated in conjunction with 400 ng/ml interleukin-6 for 2 h, NG-nitro-L-arginine apparently prevented the increase in cGMP and nitrite induced by 400 ng/ml interleukin-6. The present results show that NO mediates the increase in cGMP induced by interleukin-6 and suggest that interleukin-6 may exert an inducible effect on the NO synthase in hippocampal slices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006152:Cyclic GMP / Q000378:metabolism*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism*; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000633:toxicity*; D008297:Male; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism*; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors; D009573:Nitrites / Q000378:metabolism*; D019335:Nitroarginine / Q000494:pharmacology; D009599:Nitroprusside / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D015850:Interleukin-6; D009573:Nitrites; D009599:Nitroprusside; D019335:Nitroarginine; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase; D006152:Cyclic GMP