Effect of IL-6 on proliferation of human thyroid anaplastic cancer stem cells

Rendong Zheng; Guofang Chen; Xingjia Li; Xiao Wei; Chao Liu; Michael Derwahl

Effect of IL-6 on proliferation of human thyroid anaplastic cancer stem cells

Int J Clin Exp Pathol. 2019 Nov 1;12(11):3992-4001. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Rendong Zheng^{1

2}, Guofang Chen^{1

2}, Xingjia Li^{1

2}, Xiao Wei^{1

2}, Chao Liu^{1

2}, Michael Derwahl³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, The Third Clinical College, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine Nanjing, China.
² Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Affiliated Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine Nanjing, China.
³ Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, St. Hedwig Hospital, Charite, University Medicine Berlin, Germany.

PMID: 31933795
PMCID: PMC6949779

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the effect of IL-6 on the proliferation of thyroid cancer stem cells.

Methods: HTh74 and HTh74R thyroid cancer stem cells were cultured. The proliferation of thyroid cancer stem cells after IL-6 treatment was assessed by the MTT method. The effect of IL-6 on colony formation was observed by colony formation experiments. The expression of OCT4, ABCG2, CD133, and EMT markers was detected by real-time quantitative PCR.

Results: IL-6 promoted the proliferation of HTh74 and HTh74R thyroid cancer stem cells and enhanced sphere formation. However, anti-IL-6 inhibited the proliferation of cancer stem cells. IL-6 promoted colony formation by HTh74 and HTh74R cells and enhanced the expression of stem cell genes OCT4 and ABCG2. The expression of EMT markers E-cadherin was significantly decreased but the expression of vimentin and Snail was increased by IL-6 treatment.

Conclusions: IL-6 promoted proliferation of thyroid cancer stem cells and colony formation, and increased characteristics of thyroid cancer stem cells and EMT. The proliferative effect of thyroid cancer stem cells depends on activation of the IL6/JAK1/STAT3 pathway. These effects may contribute to the development and metastasis of thyroid cancer.

Keywords: Interleukin-6; cancer stem cells; clone; proliferation; thyroid cancer.