Interleukin-6 in inflammatory and malignant diseases of the pancreas

• IL-6 levels correlate with disease severity in both experimental and human pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer.
• IL-6 trans-signaling has been suggested as an important mediator in pancreatic oncogenesis.
• The activation of STAT3 in the pancreas via IL-6 trans-signaling links the local damage to acute lung injury during acute pancreatitis.

Interleukin-6 is an important pro-inflammatory cytokine strongly linked to the most burdened exocrine pancreatic diseases including acute pancreatitis, chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. However, its role in all these diseases is versatile and not completely defined. Several studies provided accumulating evidence that IL-6 is mainly involved in the JAK/STAT pathway activation promoting acute and chronic pancreatitis disease aggravation as well as pancreatic cancer initiation and progression. This review will focus on recent studies illustrating the role of IL-6 in acute and chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic oncogenesis. Further, a short overview of indicated disease pathologies will be given and the impact of IL-6 in JAK/STAT pathway, persistent STAT3 activation and cancer immunotherapy will be discussed.