Interleukin has been shown by us to have a direct on hormone dependent breast cancer cells; the mechanism by which this occurs appears to be through an IL-1 receptor on these cells. During the last year the focus of this project has been on studying the effect of IL-1 on cell growth. This has been accomplished by using flow cytometric analysis of the cell cycle. We have used this phenomenon to demonstrate increased cytotoxicity by the chemotherapeutic agents, 5-fluordeoxyuridine. These data indicate that IL-1 has direct effects on cell outside the immune system and that it may play a role in synchronizing cells in the Go/G1 stage of the cell cycle.
