Interleukin-6 enhances the expression of tumor necrosis factor receptors on hepatoma cells and hepatocytes.

We have studied the effect of interleukin-6 (IL-6) on the binding of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) to various cell lines. A significant increase (up to 250%) in binding was observed on rat hepatocytes and on the human hepatoma cell line HepG2, while no changes in the number of cells or cell morphology could be observed. Scatchard plot analysis showed that IL-6 enhanced the number of TNF receptors without affecting the receptor affinity. The effect reached plateau levels after approximately 6 h and at IL-6 concentrations of 10 ng/ml. It could be completely eliminated by cotreatment of cells with anti-IL-6 antibodies, but not by treatment with anti-interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), suggesting that IFN-gamma, which can enhance TNF receptor expression on a variety of cells, was not a mediator in this IL-6 effect. Treatment with inhibitors of protein or RNA synthesis completely abolished the IL-6-induced increase, suggesting that IL-6 caused an enhanced transcription of TNF receptor mRNA. IL-1 had no effect on TNF binding to HepG2. However, when cells were cotreated with IL-1 and IL-6, IL-1 could completely abrogate the IL-6 effect.