title: Interleukin-6 and mast cells.
abstract: Interleukin (IL) 6 is a pleiotropic cytokine (26 kDa) that originally was named interferon beta 2 or B cell-stimulating factor or differentiating B cell factor inducing immunoglobulin production. IL-6 is produced in many diseases. After secretion, IL-6 binds to its receptor IL-6R alpha (gp 80), the IL-6R alpha complex then recruits the signal-transducing beta-subunit (gp 130), which is the functional complex for signal transduction. In addition, activation of Th2 cells or mast cells also produce IL-6, which mediates immune responses, inflammation, acute phase responses, hematopoiesis, cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, etc. IL-6 also is a crucial cytokine for mast cell maturation. Human cord blood CD34+ cells differentiate and grow into mast cells in the presence of stem cell factor (SCF) and IL-6, causing increases in cell size, frequency of chymase positive cells, and intracellular histamine levels when compared with cells treated with SCF alone. Activated mast cells increase IL-6 mRNA associated with protein kinase C (PKC) activity. IL-6 also up-regulates histamine production rather than increases its storage and is an important inducing factor for the expression of immunoglobulin E (IgE) Fc epsilon RI.
authors.affiliation: University of Chieti School of Medicine, Via dei Vestini, 66100 Chieti, Italy. pconti@unich.it
authors.forename: Pio
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Conti
authors.forename: Duraisamy
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kempuraj
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di Gioacchino
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Boucher
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Letourneau
authors.forename: Kristiana
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kandere
authors.forename: Renato C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Barbacane
authors.forename: Marcella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reale
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Felaco
authors.forename: Stavros
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Frydas
authors.forename: Theoharis C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Theoharides
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000502:physiology*; D008407:Mast Cells / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D015850:Interleukin-6