Abstract
The role of IL-1 in regulating the expression and secretion of cytokines and chemokines by human adipocytes was examined. Adipocytes were incubated with human IL-1 for 4 or 24h. The expression of a panel of 84 cytokine/chemokine genes was probed using PCR arrays. IL-1 stimulated the expression of >30 cytokine/chemokine genes on the arrays; 15 showed >100-fold increases in mRNA at 4 or 24h including CSF3, CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCL12 and IL8. CSF3 exhibited a 10000-fold increase in mRNA at 4h. ADIPOQ was among the genes whose expression was inhibited. Protein arrays were used to examine the secretion of cytokines/chemokines from adipocytes. IL-1 stimulated the secretion of multiple cytokines/chemokines including MCP-1, IL-8, IP-10, MIP-1 and MCP-4. The most responsive was IP-10, which exhibited a 5000-fold increase in secretion with IL-1. IL-1 is likely to play a substantial role in stimulating the inflammatory response in human adipocytes in obesity.