[Experimental study on IL-6 activity against tumor: I. Regulation of IL-2-induced LAK cells].

ABSTRACT

The ability of human recombinant interleukin-6 (IL-6) to regulate the induction and function of lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cells from human fetal spleens was studied. The results showed that IL-6 alone was unable to induce fetal splenic mononuclear cells (FSMC) to develop functional LAK cells, nor was it able to affect the number of IL-2-induced LAK cells and to alter the lytic activity of the induced LAK cells in effector phase. However, when IL-6 was used in combination with IL-2 during the induction phase, the resulting LAK cells displayed considerably greater lytic activity than that with IL-2 alone (P less than 0.01), and this effect was IL-6 dose-dependent. The possible mechanism of the synergetic effect of IL-2 and IL-6 in LAK cell induction from human fetal spleens is discussed.