Human IL6 enhances leptin action in mice.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Interleukin-6 is an inflammatory cytokine with pleiotropic effects upon nutrient homeostasis. Many reports show that circulating IL6 correlates with obesity and contributes to insulin resistance; however, IL6 can promote energy expenditure that improves glucose homeostasis. METHODS: We investigated nutrient homeostasis in C57BL/6J mice with sustained circulating human IL6 (hIL6) secreted predominantly from brain and lung (hIL6(tg) mice). RESULTS: The hIL6(tg) mice displayed no features of systemic inflammation and were more insulin-sensitive than wild-type mice. On a high-fat diet, hIL6(tg) mice were lean, had low leptin concentrations, consumed less food and expended more energy than wild-type mice. Like ob/ob mice, the ob/ob (IL6) mice (generated by intercrossing ob/ob and hIL6(tg) mice) were obese and glucose-intolerant. However, low-dose leptin injections increased physical activity and reduced both body weight and food intake in ob/ob (IL6) mice, but was ineffective in ob/ob mice. Leptin increased hypothalamic signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 phosphorylation in ob/ob (IL6) mice, whereas ob/ob mice barely responded. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Human IL6 enhanced central leptin action in mice, promoting nutrient homeostasis and preventing diet-induced obesity.

A member of the nuclear factor-1 family is involved in the pituitary repression of the human placental growth hormone genes.

The human growth hormone (GH) gene family consists of five tandemly arranged and highly related genes, including the chorionic somatomammotropins (CSs), at a single locus on chromosome 17. Despite striking homologies in promoter and flanking DNA sequences, the genes within this locus have different tissue-specific patterns of expression: GH-N is expressed almost exclusively in the somatotrophs of the anterior pituitary; the remaining genes, including CS-A, are expressed in placental syncytiotrophoblast. Previously we proposed that active repression of the placental gene promoters in pituitary GC cells is mediated by upstream 'P' sequences and, specifically, a 263 bp region containing two 'P' sequence elements (PSE-A and PSE-B) and corresponding factors (PSF-A and PSF-B). We have now examined the possibility that PSF-A and PSF-B are members of the nuclear factor (NF)-1 family. Transcripts of NF-1A, NF-1C and NF-1X, but not of NF-1B, were readily detected in GC cells. High-affinity binding of NF-1 to PSE-B, but not to PSE-A, was confirmed by competition of DNA-protein interactions by using NF-1 DNA elements and antibodies. Functionally, a NF-1 element was able to substitute for PSE-B as a promoter-specific repressor in GC cells after gene transfer. However, there was a difference in the magnitude of repression exerted by the NF-1 and PSF-B elements on the CS-A promoter and, with the use of mutations, this difference was shown to be consistent with variations in NF-1-binding sequences. These results indicate that PSF-B, but not PSF-A, is a member of the NF-1 family, which participates in the PSF complex and in the repression of the CS-A promoter in pituitary GC cells.