Interleukin-6-induced proliferation of human myeloma cells associated with CD45 molecules

Cytokines exert multiple biological functions through binding to their specific receptors that triggers activation of intracellular signaling cascades. The cytokine-mediated signals may produce variable and even opposing effects on different cell types, depending on cellular context, which also are dictated by the differentiation stage of the cell. Multiple myeloma is a monoclonal proliferative disorder of human plasma cells. Despite their clonal origin, myeloma cells appear to include mixed subpopulations in accordance with expression of their surface antigens, such as CD45, CD49e, and MPC-1. Although interleukin-6 (IL-6) is widely accepted as the most relevant growth factor for myeloma cells in vitro and in vivo, only a few subpopulations of tumor cells, such as CD45(+)MPC-1(-)CD49e- immature cells, proliferate in response to IL-6. We recently showed that IL-6 efficiently activated both signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) in CD45- myeloma cell lines, although CD45- cells failed to proliferate in response to IL-6. In contrast, src family protein-tyrosine kinases (PTKs), the most important substrates for CD45 protein-tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) are found activated independently of STAT3 and ERK1/2 activation in CD45+ but not in CD45- myeloma cell lines. Therefore activation of both STAT3 and ERK1/2 is not sufficient for IL-6-induced proliferation of myeloma cells, which requires the src family kinase activation associated with CD45 expression. We propose a mechanism for IL-6-induced cell proliferation that is strictly dependent on the cellular context in myelomas.