Induction of leukemia inhibitory factor secretion by interleukin-1 in a human T lymphoma cell line.

The control of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) secretion by interleukin-1 (IL-1) was studied in the HSB2 human T lymphoma cell line. We show that in the presence of phytohemagglutinin (PHA), the addition of IL-1 in the culture medium induced a strong increase in the level of secreted LIF, as detected with the DA1.a test cell line. Subclones of the HSB2 cell line obtained by limiting dilution, and selected for their high level of LIF secretion, after phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) treatment, were more carefully analyzed. In the same conditions of stimulation, a 50X increase in the amount of secreted LIF was observed with the 2B3 subclone, whereas the 3C2 subclone gave a very weak signal in response to the stimulation. Several other chemical reagents and a panel of recombinant cytokines including IL-2, -3, -4, -5, and -6, granulocyte monocyte colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), monocyte-CSF (M-CSF), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) were tested for their induction of LIF secretion. None of the other tested components was as potent as IL-1 (100 U/ml) and 1% PHA. A half maximal response was obtained with a concentration of 15-20 pM IL-1.