REGULATION OF CLL BY INTERLEUKIN-10 - ROLE OF ANTISENSE IL-10

The role of IL-10 on the in vitro growth of B cells from patients with B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) was investigated. Previous work on a murine model of CLL demonstrated that the malignant B-l cells pro duce significantly higher levels of IL-10 mRNA than normal B-1 or B ce lls and antisense oligodeoxynucleotides specific for IL-10 mRNA inhibi ted their growth. In the present study, peripheral blood cells from CL L patients were found to be varied in the amount of IL-10 mRNA present . Several CLL samples underwent apoptosis in response to culturing in the presence of antisense IL-10. There was a correlation between the l evels of IL-IO mRNA and the sensitivity to growth inhibition by antise nse IL-10. This may indicate that, antisense IL-10 inhibits cell growt h in a sub-population of CLL in which IL-10 is an autocrine cytokine.