Athip Nilkaeo

pp. 607 - 614

Abstract

Interleukin-1 (IL-1), a pro-inflammatory cytokine, has been undergoing clinical evaluation for its
anti-neoplastic activity in potentiating the immune response. However, direct effects of this cytokine on cell
proliferation in some cancer cells are not well understood. In this study, nonradioactive MTT proliferation
assays were employed to investigate the role IL-1 in regulation of proliferation in 5 cell lines. Recombinant
human IL-1β treatment resulted in inhibition of cell proliferation as well as the induction of cytotoxicity
compared to the untreated control groups (p<0.05) in Jar, MCF-7, and HEL cell lines, whereas proliferation
of Caco-2 cells was not affected. Furthermore, its stimulatory effect was observed in KB cell line. The findings in this study indicated that IL-1 has both inhibitory and stimulatory effects on cell growth and would
provide more insight into the better administration of this cytokine in immunotherapy.

Keywords

• interleukin-1
• proliferation
• cytotoxicity