Control of IL-6 expression and response in fibroblasts from patients with systemic sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune connective tissue disease of unknown etiology in which aberrant fibroblast function results in fibrosis of the skin and internal organs. A distinguishing feature of dermal fibroblasts cultured from SSc lesions is that they produce constitutively, i.e., without exogenous stimulation, as much as 30-fold more interleukin-6 (IL-6) than do normal fibroblasts. The present study indicates that the mechanism of constitutive IL-6 secretion involves the accumulation of IL-6 mRNA in affected SSc fibroblasts, mediated by the constitutive binding of nuclear factors to the IL-6 promoter. DNA-protein complexes formed using nuclear extracts of constitutively expressing cells are distinct from those using extracts of normal cells, with or without exogenous stimulation of IL-6; thus, the mechanisms which regulate constitutive and inducible IL-6 gene expression are apparently distinct. The data also demonstrate that dermal fibroblasts respond very rapidly to IL-6 by increasing expression of the IL-6 gene, thus suggesting a mechanism for the establishment and/or persistence of constitutive expression. The constitutive secretion of IL-6 may play an important role in the perpetuation of the local immune dysregulation and fibroblast activation in the SSc lesion.