Modification of expression of stem cell factor by various cytokines

✍ Scribed by Yukitaka Sugimoto; Takehiko Koji; Sakuichiro Miyoshi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 668 KB
• Volume: 181
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9541
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4652(199911)181:2<285::aid-jcp10>3.0.co;2-o

✦ Synopsis

The local production of stem cell factor (SCF) may be an important mechanism for regulating proliferation, differentiation, and migration of various cells bearing c-kit receptors, and might be susceptible to the cytokines that serve in inflammation and tissue repair. We have demonstrated that in three murine cell lines, Balb/3T3A31, MC3T3-E1, and C3H-2K, which constitutively produced SCF with different quantity, the SCF mRNA expression was greatly enhanced in response to basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) or transforming growth factor ␤1 (TGF-␤1).

The study was carried out by in situ hybridization utilizing nonradioactive oligonucleotide probes and quantitative image analysis. Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) or interleukin-4 (IL-4) moderately increased SCF mRNA in all cell lines, but IL-3 did not. The dot-blot enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) further confirmed that SCF protein production in these cell lines and bone marrow stromal cells was markedly enhanced by TGF-␤1, although TGF-␤1 suppressed the proliferation of all these cells. bFGF also enhanced the SCF production in these cell lines, but did not in bone marrow stromal cells, suggesting a difference in their susceptibility to the cytokine. Our results suggest that TGF-␤1 and bFGF potentially modulate the biological function of cells bearing c-kit receptors through the modulation of SCF production in fibroblasts.