IL-1β microenvironment promotes proliferation, migration, and invasion of human glioma cells

Among the primary brain tumors, glioblastoma is the most common and severe. Glioblastoma have poor prognosis because of their highly diffusive growth pattern and invasion into surrounding brain tissue. Human glioblastoma cells overexpress interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and also the levels of IL-1β in U87MG glioma cells are significantly higher than in U373, T98G, A172 glioma cell lines. Malignant tumors are characterized by unlimited proliferation, migration and invasion. This study examines the effect of IL-1β microenvironment on proliferation, migration and invasion in human glioma cell line U87MG that expresses wild-type p53 protein, and U251MG which expresses mutant p53. Proliferation was investigated by MTT assay, migration by wound-healing migration assay and invasion by in vitro transwell Matrigel invasion assay. An IL-1β microenvironment significantly increased migration and invasion of both wild-type and mutant p53 expressing glioma cells, but significantly increased proliferation only in U87MG glioma cells. These effects were inhibited by IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra), thus giving evidence that an IL-1β milieu promotes glioma cell migration, invasion, and proliferation.