Constitutive production of human interleukin for DA cells/leukemia inhibitory factor by human tumor cell lines derived from various tissues.

The cytokine HILDA (human IL for DA cells)/LIF (leukemia inhibitory factor), previously reported to trigger the proliferation of the DA1.a cell line was purified to homogeneity from the culture supernatant of the 5637 bladder carcinoma cell line by using a four step procedure, including cationic exchange chromatography at pH 6, Con A affinity chromatography, reverse phase HPLC, and gel filtration HPLC. The purified radiolabeled protein was analyzed in SDS-PAGE and a single band with a molecular mass of 43 kDa was revealed. The iodinated material was then tested in a radioreceptor assay using the M1 cell line as a second target cell line. The binding of the natural 125I hormone was abrogated in a dose dependent and specific fashion by either natural and rHILDA. The limit of signal detection of displacement for the radiolabeled ligand by unlabeled sample was found to be 0.05 ng/ml. The proliferative DA1.a assay and the M1 radioreceptor assay were used to analyze the HILDA content of 17 human tumor cell line culture supernatants, and 12 among them were spontaneously secreting a detectable level of LIF. The secreted amount of HILDA was largely enhanced by treating the cell line with 30 to 80 nM PMA; in these conditions a 10 to 20x increase in the detected amount was observed. The specificity of the detected signal was reinforced by analyzing the mRNA expression of HILDA in the tumor cell lines. The secreting cell lines were found to express various forms of LIF transcripts with a major specie at 3.8 kb.