Cytokine IL-6 secretion by trophoblasts regulated via sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor 2 involving Rho/Rho-kinase and Rac1 signaling pathways

Various cytokines derived from placental cells are essential for normal placenta development and successful pregnancy. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine produced by extravillous and cytotrophoblasts regulating the functions of these cells, e.g. migration, invasion, trophoblast differentiation and proliferation. In macrophages, newly synthesized IL-6 accumulates in the Golgi complex and exits in tubulovesicular carriers fused with recycling endosomes and secreted as a soluble protein. Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) induces various cytokine secretions including IL-6 in different cell types. The signaling mechanisms regulating the IL-6 secretion are unknown. In this study, we found that S1PR(2) was the major S1P receptor being expressed in BeWo cells. S1P regulated IL-6 protein secretion in early phase (6 h) and gene expression in later phase (24 h). IL-6 secretion was completely inhibited via inhibitor of transcription (Actinomycin D) or protein synthesis (Cycloheximide) confirming that IL-6 releases constitutively from BeWo cells. By using specific S1PR(2) inhibitor JTE-013 and S1PR(2) gene silencing, we found that S1PR(2) was the main receptor that regulates IL-6 secretion. Furthermore, S1P induced RhoGTPases-dependent pathways that are required for IL-6 secretion. Pretreatment of cells with specific Rho-kinase inhibitor (Y27632) and Rac1 inhibitor (NSC23766) drastically inhibited S1P-induced IL-6 secretion. By using a specific Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor (LY294002), we found that basal activity of PI3K was required for secretion but was independent of S1P/S1PR(2) axis activation. In summary, we report first time that binding of S1P to S1PR(2) activates multiple RhoGTPases-dependent pathways that coordinate with PI3K pathway for secretion of IL-6 in BeWo cells.