In vitro myoblast to myotube transformations in the presence of leukemia inhibitory factor.

Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is a pleiotropic cytokine which exerts a variety of effects on many cell types including neuronal cells, and is a potent mitogen for myoblasts. At concentrations of 0.1-0.3 ng/ml, the peptide stimulates a maximal increase in cell number. LIF initiates a prolonged proliferative response lasting up to 13 days, when myoblasts are exposed to it in culture. LIF expression can be detected in vivo during development of limb muscle and in adult regenerating skeletal muscle tissue. Here, we studied the levels of expression of alpha-bungarotoxin-binding sites as a measure of acetylcholine receptors (AChRs), myosin light chain pattern and rate of myotube formation in fused, control and LIF-treated muscle cultures derived from mouse hind-limb muscles. We found that both the level of expression of AChRs and myosin light chain pattern, are normal, following exposure of the cells to LIF. There was no difference in the rate of myotube formation between LIF-stimulated and control myoblasts over a 10-fold concentration range (0.3-3.0 ng/ml) as determined by nuclei counts. Taken together, these results suggest that LIF, in combination with other cytokines, may act in vivo to stimulate rapid growth, without significant differentiation, during the early phases of myogenesis.