Cited by 202Liver physiology and pathologyOrgan Transplantation Techniques and OutcomesCytokine Signaling Pathways and Interactions

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 37 of the 37 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 2 of the 23 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Interleukin 6 Is Important for Survival After Partial Hepatectomy in Mice

Open access

Abstract

The response to partial hepatectomy (PH) is impaired in interleukin 6 (IL–6)–deficient mice. IL–6 is well known for its role in the induction of the acute phase (AP) response, and the impairment of this response after surgery and hepatectomy could explain the defective hepatocyte regeneration. In addition, it was proposed that IL–6 has an important role in stimulating the reentry of quiescent cells into the cell cycle within the first 2 to 4 hours after PH. To further analyze the role for IL–6, we performed two third hepatectomies in wild–type mice, in IL–6 knockout (KO) mice, and in IL–6 KO mice that were treated 30 minutes before surgery with intravenous (IV) (short acting) or subcutaneous (SC) (long acting) injections of recombinant IL–6. The high postoperative mortality of IL–6–deficient mice could be completely prevented by SC, but not by IV IL–6 treatment, showing the requirement of a sustained action of IL–6. However, there is a subset of IL–6 KO mice that survives a PH in good health even without IL–6 treatment. When we analyzed these mice, we found an intact liver regeneration and no indication of a block in cell cycle reentry. We conclude that the major role of IL–6 is the induction of an adaptive response to PH that ensures body homeostasis and survival.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

In IL-6-deficient mice, partial hepatectomy causes high mortality that can be rescued by subcutaneous but not intravenous IL-6, indicating that sustained IL-6/STAT3-dependent acute-phase signaling is required for survival. Surviving IL-6 knockout mice still regenerate liver mass through hepatocyte proliferation, with delayed cyclin D1/c-myc induction and compensatory cell-cycle mechanisms.

Key findings

  • Seven-day survival after partial hepatectomy was 86% in wild-type controls versus 17% in untreated IL-6 knockout mice; subcutaneous IL-6 restored survival to 86%, whereas intravenous IL-6 did not rescue survival.
  • Subcutaneous IL-6 produced later peak serum concentrations and prolonged STAT3 activation, and induced the acute-phase protein SAP; intravenous IL-6 did not induce SAP above constitutive levels.
  • In IL-6 knockout mice that survived in good health, liver mass restoration was similar to wild-type mice; BrdU incorporation was lower at 40 hours after PH (17% vs. 27% nuclei stained) but not different at 48 or 60 hours.
  • Cyclin D1 and c-myc up-regulation were absent early in IL-6 knockout livers, but cyclin E-CDK2 association was unchanged and cyclin D3-CDK6 lacked the inhibitor p27^Kip1 at 36 and 48 hours, suggesting compensatory cell-cycle progression.

Methods

  • Eight- to 12-week-old IL-6-deficient mice and C57Bl/6J controls underwent two-thirds partial hepatectomy; IL-6 knockout mice received 500 ng/g body weight recombinant human IL-6 subcutaneously or intravenously 30 minutes before surgery.
  • Survival was observed for 7 days; liver regeneration was assessed by liver weight, hepatocyte counts, and in vivo BrdU labeling at time points after PH.
  • Molecular analyses included serum IL-6 ELISA, STAT3 electrophoretic mobility shift assay, Northern and Western blots for SAP, and Western blot/immunoprecipitation for cyclins D1/D2/D3, c-myc, CDK2/CDK6, and p27.

Limitations

  • The paper states that loss-of-function models such as IL-6-deficient mice cannot distinguish between different functions of a cytokine because all functions are lost simultaneously.
  • The paper notes that its BrdU results differ from prior work possibly because it excluded sick mice from regeneration analysis or because of different mouse strains.
  • Evident from the text: regeneration and cell-cycle analyses were restricted to the subset of IL-6 knockout mice that survived in good health, while sick mice were euthanized and excluded, so findings may not represent all IL-6-deficient mice after PH.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1053/jhep.2003.50378

Cites

37 of 37 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

2 of 23 cited sources checked · 0 supported · 0 flagged · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 46 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 19
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 9
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 1
26 of 26
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    IL-6 knockout mice and wild-type controls are comparable except for the IL-6 deficiency, including their genetic background.

    “Eight-to 12-week old IL-6 -deficient mice (Jackson Laboratories, Bar Harbor, Maine; strain name B6; 129S2-Il6tm1Kopf; original reference 11) and C57Bl/6J mice (Biological Research Laboratories, Fu ¨llinsdorf, Switzerland) were used for the PH experiments.”
    “In all experiments, controls were age-and sex-matched.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The IL-6 knockout mice that survive partial hepatectomy in good health are representative of all IL-6 knockout mice that survive partial hepatectomy.

    “For this experiment, only mice in a good state of health after PH were analyzed.”
    “The sick mice were spared from further experiments and euthanized and not used for further analysis.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The subset of IL-6 KO mice that survived in good health after partial hepatectomy is representative for assessing whether IL-6 is required for liver cell proliferation.

    “We then focused on the analysis of liver regeneration in the subset of IL-6 KO mice that survived well and in apparently good health after PH.”
    “The different results of the BrdU labeling experiments in our work compared with the previous report 7 could result from our exclusion of all sick mice for the analysis of liver regeneration after PH, or from the use of different mouse strains.”
3 of 3

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

  • Hepatocyte counting uses a different number of fields

    Minor

    The methods say three fields were counted per mouse, but the results say two to three fields were counted per mouse.

  • Figure 5D identifies different CDK partners

    Minor

    The Figure 5D heading names CDK4, whereas its description says the extracts were immunoprecipitated with CDK6 antibodies.

2 of 2

Citations

Cites

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Show all 33 references

Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. Higgins, 1931, Arch Pathol, 12, 188
  2. Rai, 1996, Am J Physiol, 270, g909
  3. Matsunami, 1992, Transplant Proc, 24, 1971
  4. Albrecht, 1999, Cell Growth Differ, 10, 397
  5. Nelsen, 2001, Cancer Res, 61, 8564

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 101–200 of 201

Metadata

Authors
Blindenbacher, A., Wang, X., Langer, I., Savino, R., Terracciano, L., & Heim, M. H.
Affiliations
  • University Hospital of Basel (CH)
  • Magna Graecia University (IT)
Corresponding author
Heim, Markus H.
Venue
Hepatology
Published
2003-09
Volume
38
Issue
3
Pages
674-682
ISSN
0270-9139 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2048242463
Cited by
202
References
33
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 12
FWCI
6.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Hepatology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Hepatology › Liver physiology and pathology
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Organ Transplantation Techniques and Outcomes
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Cytokine Signaling Pathways and Interactions
Keywords
interleukin-6, partial hepatectomy, postoperative survival, acute phase response, liver regeneration, IL-6 knockout mice, homeostasis
MeSH terms
Acute-Phase Proteins, Animals, Cell Cycle, DNA-Binding Proteins, Hepatectomy, Injections, Subcutaneous, Liver, Liver Regeneration, Time Factors, Trans-Activators, Interleukin-6, Survival Rate, Mice, Knockout, STAT3 Transcription Factor, Mice

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