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Production of interleukin-1β and tumour necrosis factor-α in patients with benign or malignant ovarian tumours

  • Original Papers
  • Clinical Oncology
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Summary

To assess the role of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and tumour necrosis factorα (TNFα) in the physiological host defence mechanisms against malignancies, the production of these cytokines in sera, ascitic and cyst fluids and in the tumour tissues of patients with benign or malignant ovarian tumours was studied. IL-1β was found neither in the sera nor in the ascitic fluids of these patients. It was also virtually absent from the cyst fluid samples. However, a mean value of 790 pg IL-1β/g tumour was found. Like IL-1β, TNFα was virtually absent in the serum samples. It was, however, detectable in the ascitic and cyst fluids and tumour tissues. The TNFα concentrations were highest in the tumour tissues, with a mean level of 328 pg/g tumour. When comparing the level of IL-1β and TNFα in patients with benign tumours to that seen in patients with malignant tumours, no differences in production were observed, regardless of the origin of the test samples. Our results indicate the production of IL-1β and TNFα in patients with ovarian tumours. More importantly, the finding that the production of these cytokines in patients with benign tumours is similar to that in patients with malignant tumours supports the conclusion that the production of these cytokines is more a nonspecific indicator of an inflammatory process than a specific response to a malignant process.

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Abbreviations

IL:

interleukin

TNF:

tumour necrosis factor

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Author notes

  1. Juha Punnonen

    Present address: Human Immunology Department, DNAX Research Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, 901 California Avenue, 94304-1104, Palo Alto, CA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Turku, Finland

    Juha Punnonen

  2. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Central Hospital of Tampere, Finland

    Pentti K. Heinonen, Tapio Kuoppala & Reijo Punnonen

  3. The Department of Dermatology, University of Turku, Finland

    Christer T. Jansen

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  1. Juha Punnonen
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  2. Pentti K. Heinonen
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  5. Reijo Punnonen
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Punnonen, J., Heinonen, P.K., Kuoppala, T. et al. Production of interleukin-1β and tumour necrosis factor-α in patients with benign or malignant ovarian tumours. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 117, 587–592 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01613293

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01613293

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