Differential regulation of chemokines by leukemia inhibitory factor, interleukin-6 and oncostatin M

Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), oncostatin M (OsM) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) are members of a cytokine family, which are produced by activated macrophages and glomerular mesangial cells. These cytokines have been implicated in the pathogenesis of glomerular inflammation, but their action on glomerular cells is presently unclear. Therefore, we examined the effects of IL-6, OsM and LIF on chemokine synthesis of rat mesangial cells in culture. While LIF as well as IL-6 up-regulated monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) mRNA expression, OsM showed no such effect. The induction of MCP-1 mRNA by LIF and IL-6 was transient, peaking at one to two hours and two to three hours, respectively, and returning to background levels within several hours. Induction of MCP-1 mRNA by LIF and IL-6 was strongly inhibited by dexamethasone. LIF activated STAT factors in mesangial cells, suggesting their involvement in signal transduction pathways that lead to LIF-stimulated up-regulation of MCP-1 mRNA. By contrast, LIF, IL-6 and OsM failed to affect the expression of the chemokines, macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2) and RANTES. The rapid, transient and differential regulation of MCP-1 expression induced by LIF and IL-6 contrasted with uniformly powerful effects of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1 beta and TNF alpha that induced all tested chemokines for prolonged time periods. These results suggest that the selective and transient induction of MCP-1 by LIF and IL-6 may play a role in the preferential attraction of monocytes to the injured glomerulus.