Genome-wide analysis of interleukin (IL) -6 and IL-11 responsive genes in murine gastric tumors. Mus musculus

We performed micrarrays to analyse gene expression in spontaneously arising gastric tumors from gp130Y757F/F mutant mice (Tebbutt et al., 2002) following administration of recombinant human IL-6 or IL-11. The present study was designed to assess differences in gene expression in response to IL-6 and IL-11, two cytokines which both activate the shared gp130 receptor and downstream Stat3 signalling pathway. Since gastric tumorigenesis in gp130Y757F/F mice is strictly dependent on IL-11, but not IL-6 signalling (Ernst et al., 2008) the study aimed to identify IL-6 and IL-11 specific target genes which may account for the IL-11 dependent tumor development. Overall design: Total RNA was obtained from gastric tumor tissue of gp130Y575F/F mice collected 60 min after a single systemic (i.p.) administration of PBS (vehicle control), recombinant human IL6 or IL11 (5 ug). The gene expression profile of the IL-6 and IL-11 treated samples were separately compared to the PBS (vehicle) treated control samples, resulting in two lists of responsive genes (”IL-6 vs control” and “IL-11 vs control”).