Interleukin-6 is not involved in the interleukin-1-induced production of colony-stimulating factors by human bone marrow stromal cells and fibroblasts.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine that plays a role in regulation of hematopoiesis. Because IL-6 is coinduced with colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) by various cell types in response to stimulation with IL-1, we investigated whether IL-6 is involved in the IL-1-induced production of CSF by human bone marrow (BM) cells in long-term culture or human fibroblasts. We showed that IL-6 does not induce CSF production by these cells. Neither addition of exogenous IL-6 nor neutralization of endogenous production of IL-6 by an anti-IL-6 monoclonal antibody (MoAb) diminished the IL-1-induced colony-stimulating activity (CSA), indicating that IL-6 did not act synergistically with IL-1. Finally, IL-6 did not influence the kinetics of IL-1-induced CSA production by human fibroblasts. We conclude that IL-6, either alone or in combination with IL-1, does not induce CSF production by human BM stromal cells or fibroblasts.