Intratumoral expression of macrophage migration inhibitory factor is correlated with serum C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate if macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) affects systemic inflammatory response in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we studied the relationship between intratumoral MIF expression and serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6).


METHODS
mRNAs for MIF and beta-actin, and 18S ribosomal RNA derived from tumor-bearing and nontumor-bearing tissues were quantified by a quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in 35 patients with NSCLC. Spearman's test was used to examine the correlation between the quantities of RNAs and the preoperative serum levels of CRP and IL-6 in the corresponding patients.


RESULTS
The intratumoral level of MIF mRNA was significantly correlated with the serum levels of CRP (rho = 0.542, P = 0.0016) and IL-6 (rho = 0.532, P = 0.0173). The level of MIF mRNA in the non-tumor-bearing lung also showed a positive, but relatively weak correlation with the serum CRP level (rho = 0.418, P = 0.0148).


CONCLUSIONS
Macrophage migration inhibitory factor expression in the tumor site may affect the systemic inflammatory response in patients with NSCLC.
Hamatake
Motoharu
M
Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
Yoshino
Ichiro
I
Tomiyasu
Makiko
M
Miura
Naoko
N
Okazaki
Hiroshi
H
Ohba
Taro
T
Takenaka
Tomohiro
T
Maehara
Yoshihiko
Y
D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000378:metabolism*; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000378:metabolism*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D008263:Macrophage Migration-Inhibitory Factors / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D015850:Interleukin-6; D008263:Macrophage Migration-Inhibitory Factors; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D002097:C-Reactive Protein