Interleukin-6 stimulates defective angiogenesis

The cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) has a number of tumor-promoting activities in human and experimental cancers, but its potential as an angiogenic agent has not been fully investigated. Here we show that IL-6 can directly induce vessel sprouting in the ex vivo aortic ring model, as well as endothelial cell proliferation and migration, with similar potency to VEGF. However, IL-6-stimulated aortic ring vessel sprouts had defective pericyte coverage compared to VEGF-stimulated vessels. The mechanism of IL-6 action on pericytes involved stimulation of the Notch ligand Jagged1 as well as Angiopoietin2 (Ang2). When peritoneal xenografts of ovarian cancer were treated with an anti-IL-6 antibody, pericyte coverage of vessels was restored. In addition, in human ovarian cancer biopsies there was an association between levels of IL-6mRNA, Jagged1 and Ang2. Our findings have implications for the use of cancer therapies that target VEGF or IL-6 and for understanding abnormal angiogenesis in cancers, chronic inflammatory disease and stroke.