Signal transduction mechanism of interleukin 6 in cultured rat mesangial cells

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Abstract
Interleukin 6 (IL‐6) is one of the potent autocrine growth factors for mesangial cells. We investigated the signal transduction mechanism or IL‐6 in cultured rat mesangial cells. IL‐6 induced a transient increase of inositol 1,4,5‐trisphosphate (Ins 1,4,5‐P3) followed by a transient and sustained increase of intracellular calcium concentration, suggesting that IL‐6 stimulates phosphoinositide turnover. IL‐6 also stimulated prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production. The IL‐6‐concentration dependency in PGE2 production was similar to that in Ins 1,4,5‐P3 production. We concluded that the action of IL‐6 on mesangial cells is exerted at least partially through the enhancement of phosphoinositide turnover and PGE2 production.