Interleukin 6 signal transduction in a human hepatoma cell line (Hep G2).

Interleukin 6 is an important peptide regulatory factor with diverse biological activities including stimulation of acute phase protein synthesis. In this report we describe the effect of signal transduction pathway modulators on interleukin 6 mediated acute phase protein synthesis in a human hepatoma cell line Hep G2. Genistein, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor inhibited the interleukin 6 stimulated synthesis of acute phase proteins suggesting that a tyrosine kinase event participates in the signal transduction pathway. There was no evidence to suggest that protein kinase C had a stimulatory role although this or a related kinase may be involved in down-regulating the interleukin 6 signal.