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Research Paper
NF-kappaB Activates IL-6 Expression through Cooperation with c-Jun and IL6-AP1 site, But Is Independent of Its IL6-NFkappaB Regulatory Site in Autocrine Human Multiple Myeloma Cells
Weihua Xiao, David R. Hodge, Lihua Wang, Xiaoyi Yang, Xiaohu Zhang and William L. Farrar Weihua Xiao, David R. Hodge, Lihua Wang, Xiaoyi Yang, Xiaohu Zhang and William L. Farrar
volume 3 | issue 10
october 2004Pages: 1007-1017
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IL-6 stimulates the growth and survival of a variety of tumors. In multiple myeloma (MM), IL-6 prevents spontaneous, drug-induced, and Fas-induced apoptosis. The sources of IL-6 in multiple myeloma appear to be both autocrine and paracrine in nature, with autocrine MM cells exhibiting a constitutively activated expression of the cytokine. Here we present a systematic analysis of the functional roles of the four major transcriptional regulatory sites present in the IL-6 promoter region, IL6-NFkappaB, IL6-C/EBP, IL6-CREB and IL6-AP1. Among these regulatory sites, IL6-AP1 is the most important cis-regulatory site, and plays a vital role in the constitutive expression of IL-6 in IM9 cells. Conversely, the IL6-CREB site, when bound by the transcription factor CREB, exhibits a repression of IL-6 autocrine expression, a result of possible steric hinderence of C/EBP-?, due to the close proximity and site overlap between the IL6-C/EBP and IL6-CREB sites. Uniquely, although the presence of NF-kappaB protein is fundamental for constitutive expression of IL-6, a functional NF-kappaB site on the IL-6 promoter region is not required. The mechanism of NF-kappaB activation of IL-6 appears to occur through the cooperation with c-Jun protein, that constitutively occupies the IL6-AP1 site, and this indicates a novel transcriptional mechanism for NF-kappaB in the activation of NF-kappaB-driven genes.
We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
Download PDFIf the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.