articleScienceJul 5, 2007Closed access

Gender Disparity in Liver Cancer Due to Sex Differences in MyD88-Dependent IL-6 Production

University of California San Diego · The Institute of Medical Science, Asahi Life Foundation · +2 more institutions

PubMed
Indexed incrossrefpubmed

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common liver cancer, occurs mainly in men. Similar gender disparity is seen in mice given a chemical carcinogen, diethylnitrosamine (DEN). DEN administration caused greater increases in serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) concentration in males than it did in females. Furthermore, ablation of IL-6 abolished the gender differences in hepatocarcinogenesis in mice. DEN exposure promoted production of IL-6 in Kupffer cells (KCs) in a manner dependent on the Toll-like receptor adaptor protein MyD88, ablation of which also protected male mice from DEN-induced hepatocarcinogenesis. Estrogen inhibited secretion of IL-6 from KCs exposed to necrotic hepatocytes and reduced circulating…

No related works found for this paper.