Journal
BLOOD
Volume 119, Issue 22, Pages 5173-5181Publisher
AMER SOC HEMATOLOGY
DOI: 10.1182/blood-2011-09-377705
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Multiple Myeloma Research foundation
- International Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia foundation
- National Institutes of Health [R01CA151354, T32-HL07734, 5T32AI007485-17]
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bonn, Germany [SFB415, B5, C6, SFB877, A1, A2]
- Cluster of Excellence Inflammation at Interfaces
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8) or Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpes virus is the etiologic agent of Kaposi sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma, and plasma cell-type multicentric Castleman disease (MCD). HHV-8 encodes a viral homolog of human IL-6, called viral IL-6 (vIL-6), which does not require the cellular IL-6 receptor for binding to the ubiquitously expressed gp130 receptor subunit and subsequent JAK-STAT signaling. Thus, in contrast to IL-6, vIL-6 can stimulate virtually all cells in the body. To elucidate the mechanism by which vIL-6 drives human diseases, we generated transgenic mice that constitutively express vIL-6 under control of the MHC class I promoter. The mice were found to exhibit vIL-6 serum levels comparable with those observed in HHV-8-infected patients, to contain elevated amounts of phosphorylated STAT3 in spleen and lymph nodes, where vIL-6 was produced, and to spontaneously develop key features of human plasma cell-type MCD, including splenomegaly, multifocal lymphadenopathy, hypergammaglobulinemia, and plasmacytosis. Transfer of the vIL-6 transgene onto an IL-6-deficient genetic background abrogated MCD-like phenotypes, indicating that endogenous mouse IL-6 is a crucial cofactor in the natural history of the disease. Our results in mice suggest that human IL-6 plays an important role in the pathogenesis of HHV-8-associated MCD. (Blood. 2012; 119(22): 5173-5181)
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available