Cytokines involving gp130 in signal transduction suppressed growth of a mouse hybridoma cell line and enhanced its antibody production.

Three cytokines, interleukin 6 (IL-6), leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF), and oncostatin M (OSM), that bind to composite receptors including a common signal transducer gp130 suppressed proliferation of a mouse B-cell hybridoma cell line 2E3-O cultured in serum-free medium, while they enhanced antibody production of the cells. The specific growth rate of the cells reduced from 1.0/day for control to 0.6/day for the cultures supplemented with IL-6, LIF, or OSM at 1, 4, or 2 ng/ml, respectively. The antibody productivity increased five-fold when the cells were cultured with IL-6, LIF, or OSM at 1, 25, or 20 ng/ml, respectively. Transforming growth factor beta1(TGF-beta1) similarly suppressed growth of the cells at the concentration of 5 ng/ml, while it did not enhance the antibody production. Cell cycle analysis revealed that IL-6 induced the cells to be arrested at G1 phase of the cell cycle more intensively than TGF-beta1, indicating that IL-6 and TGF-beta1 suppressed the growth through mutually different mechanisms. As a whole, this work suggests that gp130, which is commonly involved in each receptor for IL-6, LIF, and OSM, transduces signals for suppressing proliferation and possibly for enhancing antibody production in the hybridoma cells.