INTRODUCTION

The cytokine interleukin-11 (IL-11) binds on its target cells to a membrane-bound IL-11R, which results in homodimerization of the signal-transducing β-receptor gp130. Recent studies have uncovered a pro- inflammatory role in several diseases, including different tumor entities, and mouse models have revealed a crucial role of the IL-11/IL-11R axis in gastric cancer. However, studies regarding human gastric cancer are sparse, and whether the results obtained in mouse models also hold true in the human situation is little investigated.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We analyzed gene expression of and in different gastric tumor and immune cell lines. Furthermore, we stimulated these cell lines with exogenous cytokines and determined intracellular signaling. Finally, we analyzed gene expression data of gastric tumor patients and correlated them with overall patient survival.

RESULTS

This study showed that different gastric tumor cell lines respond to IL-6 classic and trans-signaling, but only slightly to stimulation with IL-11. We observed that monocyte-like cell lines expressed high levels of IL-6R and responded to IL-6, but not to stimulation with IL-11. Using gene expression data, we found that and are not overexpressed in human gastric cancer tissue and do not correlate with patient survival. However, low expression is associated with higher overall survival.

CONCLUSIONS

We provided evidence for IL-6 but not IL-11 signaling in gastric tumor cells and demonstrated that expression in gastric tumors is associated with overall survival of patients.