Antibodies to interleukin-1 inhibit cytokine-induced proliferation of neonatal rat Schwann cells in vitro.

Unfractionated cytokines have been shown to induce in vitro proliferation of neonatal rat Schwann cells but the nature of the mitogen(s) is not known. A mixture of rabbit antibodies specific for recombinant interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1 alpha) and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) inhibited Schwann cell proliferation induced by unfractionated human cytokines whereas antibodies to interleukin-2 (IL-2) and control IgG did not. However, purified human IL-1 and recombinant human IL-1 alpha or beta did not induce Schwann cell proliferation on their own.