Activity of interferon alpha, interleukin 6 and insulin in the regulation of differentiation in A549 alveolar carcinoma cells.

The differentiation of A549, a human tumour cell line from type II pneumocytes, can be induced by a crude fibroblast-derived factor (FDF) isolated from the conditioned medium of glucocorticoid-treated lung fibroblasts. In the present report, we have used alkaline phosphatase as a differentiation marker to investigate the activity of a number of growth factors as potential candidates for this paracrine activity. This showed that insulin, interleukin 6 (IL-6), and interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) could simulate the activity of conditioned medium. Their effects were dexamethasone (DX) dependent, additive and reversible with a half-life of 1 week. Transforming growth factor alpha and beta, IL-1 alpha and epidermal growth factor, were all inhibitory, and inhibition was opposed, partially or completely, by DX. The most potent inducer was IL-6, but as DX was shown to decrease the concentration of IL-6 in lung fibroblast-conditioned medium it seems an unlikely candidate for FDF. Unlike FDF, all of the positive-acting factors were shown to induce plasminogen activator. FDF has also been shown to be active in the absence of DX. This suggests that differentiation-inducing activity may be present in several paracrine factors, but that so far a candidate for FDF has not been identified.