Lack of a role of interleukin 11 in the growth of multiple myeloma.

Interleukin (IL) 11 is a recently described lymphokine which, like IL-6, stimulates normal hematopoietic murine and human hematopoietic progenitor cells and therefore has potential value for either enhancing hematopoiesis in disease states or augmenting hematopoietic recovery after myeloablative therapies. Since IL-6 is known to promote the growth of human myeloma, either in an autocrine or paracrine fashion, we examined the effect of IL-11 on the growth of a murine plasmacytoma cell line, human myeloma-derived cell lines, and freshly isolated human myeloma cells. Interleukin 11 does increase DNA synthesis by the murine plasmacytoma line T10 in the presence of neutralizing antibody to IL-6. However, neither human myeloma cells nor derived cell lines express IL-11 mRNA; secrete IL-11; express IL-11 cell surface receptors; or augment either DNA synthesis or Ig secretion in response to exogenous IL-11. These findings strongly suggest that IL-11 does support the growth of a murine plasmacytoma cell line but does not play a role in the growth of either freshly isolated human myeloma cells or derived cell lines.