Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Promote the Chemo-resistance in Gastric Cancer through Secreting IL-11 Targeting JAK/STAT3/Bcl2 Pathway

Purpose Our aim was to detect the potential role of interleukin 11 (IL-11) in the development of chemo-resistance in gastric cancer and to reveal the mechanism involved in the process. Materials and Methods Here, we used flow cytometry to examine the percentage of cancer-associated-fibroblasts in tumor samples from chemo-resistant and -sensitive gastric cancer patients. Using MU assay, we detected the cell viability under different conditions. Using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting, we determined the target expressions in mRNA and protein levels. We also performed immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence to detect the target proteins under different conditions. Animal models were constructed to verify the potential role of IL-11 in chemo-resistant develop in vivo. Results Herein, we observed enriched cancer associated fibroblasts in drug resistant tumor tissues from gastric patients. Those fibroblasts facilitate the chemotherapeutic drugs resistance development through the secretion of IL-11, which activates the IL-11/IL-11R/gp130/JAK/STAT3 anti-apoptosis signaling pathway in gastric cancer cells. We found that the combination of chemotherapeutic drugs and JAK inhibitor overcomes the resistance and increases the survival of mice with gastric cancer xenografts. Conclusion Our results demonstrated that IL-11 contributed to the obtain of resistance to chemotherapy drugs through gp130/JAK/STAT3/Bcl2 pathway, and targeting the IL-11 signaling pathway induced by fibroblasts might be a promising strategy to overcome the multi-drugs resistant cancer in clinic.