Interleukin-2 stimulates cell proliferation of the growth hormone producing human pituitary adenoma in vitro
Kunert Radek, J.; Radek, A.; Stepien, H.
Biomedical Letters 49(196): 259-264
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0961-088X Accession: 008899045
Interleukin-2 (IL-2), a multifunctional cytokine with diverse biological activity on immune cells is also present in the central nervous system, including hypothalamic neurons. The potential neuroimmunomodulatory function of this cytokine, and the effects of IL-2 on the proliferation of human pituitary tumoral GH-producing cells were studied in vitro. Human pituitary adenoma tissues were obtained surgically from a 60-year-old woman and a 52-year-old man with acromegaly (growth hormone level before surgery gt 100 ng/ml). The dispersed tumoral cells were cultured for 24 h in the presence of rh IL-2 (200, 20, and 2.0 U/ml) and (3H)-thymidine. It was found that IL-2 significantly stimulated the (3H)-thymidine incorporation into DNA of pituitary tumoral cells in the primary culture, with the maximal effect at the concentration 200 U/ml, and increased the cAMP accumulation in the cultured tumoral GH-producing cells. These results indicate that IL-2 is involved in the growth control of pituitary somatotroph adenoma cells and suggest that cAMP is an essential intracellular mediator of proliferative IL-2 action.