Abstract
Oncostatin M (OM) inhibits proliferation of H3922, a human breast cancer cell line derived from a ductal infiltrating carcinoma. We have found that treatment of H3922 cells with OM for 72 h lowers the steadystate level of c-myc mRNA to 16% of that seen in control cells. Our present study showed that down-regulation of c-myc mRNA levels was both dose and time dependent. Results from nuclear run-off analysis and mRNA stability studies established that a major component of the observed OM-induced down-regulation of c-myc mRNA occurs at the transcriptional level. OM treatment of H3922 cells reduced the abundance of actively transcribed c-myc mRNAs to approximately 25% of that observed in control cells. These data were supported by our finding that OM did not significantly affect the half-life of c-myc mRNA in actinomycin-treated H3922 cells. Taken together, these data demonstrate that the suppressive effect of OM on c-myc gene expression in H3922 cells occurs at the transcriptional level.