Effects of interleukin-6 and leukemia inhibitory factor on the acute phase response and DNA synthesis in cultured rat hepatocytes.

Human recombinant interleukin-6 (IL-6) and human recombinant leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) similarly stimulate synthesis of typical acute-phase proteins in the primary rat hepatocyte cultures. LIF is, however, less effective in increasing uptake of alpha-aminoisobutyric acid than IL-6. Antiserum to human IL-6 abolishes induced protein synthesis and amino acid uptake elicited by hrIL-6 but has no effect on the acute-phase response of rat liver cells stimulated by LIF. Both IL-6 and LIF inhibit basal and epidermal growth factor-induced DNA synthesis in rat hepatocytes.