Repairing effects of interleukin 11 (IL-11) towards high dose methotrexate-induced rat small intestinal mucositis and its impacts on T-lymphoblastic leukemia cell line

OBJECTIVES To investigate the efficacy of interleukin 11 (IL-11) towards the high dose methotrexate (HDMTX)-concurrent rat small intestinal mucositis and its impacts on the proliferation of the human T-lymphoblastic leukemia (CEM) cell line. MATERIALS AND METHODS 95 Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups, the normal control group (A), the methotrexate (MTX) control group (B), the IL-11-pre-treated high-dose group (C), the post-IL-11-treatment high-dose group (D) and the post-IL-11-treatment low-dose group (E). After the intraperitoneal injection of MTX in the groups B-E, the rats were sacrificed at 1, 3, 5 and 7 days. The mortality, morphological and ultrastructural changes of small intestine of each group were observed. The cells were then cultured in vitro, and the MTT method was used to investigate the effects of different concentration of IL-11 on CEM proliferation and also on HDMTX-induced mucositis. RESULTS IL-11 could reduce the intestinal histopathological score, increase the height of small intestinal villi, promote the proliferation of intestinal lacunar cells and reduce the mortality rate of rats. The IL-11 pre-treatment group exhibited the best efficacies, demonstrating significant difference with the control group (P<0.01). In addition, the proliferation of CEM was not promoted, indicating that IL-11 could not inhibit HDMTX. CONCLUSION IL-11 could reduce the severity of HDMTX-induced intestinal mucositis, and improve the survival rate of experimental rats, and could be safely used as the adjuvant treatment of HDMTX in childhood leukemia.