Gene: maps to 19q13.3-q13.4. It has 5 exons and 4 introns, and a length of about 7 kb.
mRNA: sizes: 1.5 and 2.5 kb, resulting from alternative choice of polyadenylation site.
Protein: IL-11 is a non-glycosylated protein of approximately 23 kDa (precursor consists of 199 aminoacids, including a 21-aa leader sequence), not related to any other protein. The isoelectric point is pH 6.3. The protein does not contain cysteines but is rich in proline.
IL-11 is member of a family of cytokines including
interleukin-6 (IL-6),
leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF),
oncostatin M (OSM), ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), and cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1).
Cell lines:
- IL-11 is found in some breast cancer cell (BCC) lines (MDA-MB-231, Hs578T), where it is co-expressed with
IL-6. It is inducible by transforming growth factor-beta1, forskolin, and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, but not by EGF, PDGF, bFGF, IGF-I, IGF-II. The cytokine is absent in a series of other BCC lines (MCF-7, T-47D, BT-20, SK-BR-3, CAMA-1, EVSA-T,..) (Lacroix M. et al., 1998).
- IL-11 expression in MDA-MB-231 and Hs578T BCC lines is inhibited by the aspirin metabolite salicylate (Sotiriou C. et al., 1999).
Du X. and Williams D.A. (1997) Interleukin-11: review of molecular, cell biology, and clinical use. Blood 89, 3897-3908 (
Review).
Kawashima I. et al. (1991) Molecular cloning of cDNA encoding adipogenesis inhibitory factor and identity with interleukin 11. FEBS Lett. 283, 199-202.
Lacroix M. et al. (1998) Production and regulation of interleukin-11 by breast cancer cells. Cancer Lett. 127, 29-35
(see abstract).
Paul S.R. et al. (1990) Molecular cloning of a cDNA encoding interleukin 11, a novel stromal cell-derived lymphopoietic and hematopoietic cytokine. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87, 7512-7516.
Sotiriou C. et al. (1999) The aspirin metabolite salicylate inhibits breast cancer cells growth and their synthesis of the osteolytic cytokines interleukins-6 and -11. Anticancer Res. 19, 2997-3006
(see abstract).
