Blast cells from up to 70% of patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) exhibit a variable degree of autonomous growth in vitro which is related to the production of autocrine growth factors including granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-1 (IL-1) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). Approximately 40% of AML blasts with autonomous growth have been reported to exhibit abnormalities of retinoblastoma (Rb) protein expression. As the Rb protein is a known transcriptional repressor of the IL-6 promoter, we have investigated the relationship between absence of Rb protein and cytokine gene expression in AML. Blasts from 28 patients were studied, 19 were Rb protein positive by Western blot and by flow cytometry for nuclear Rb protein; blasts from nine patients were Rb-negative. Of the 28 specimens tested by RT-PCR, 24 were positive for GM-CSF mRNA, 21 for IL-1 beta mRNA, and 14 for IL-6 mRNA. Only the expression of IL-6 was found to be significantly associated with loss of Rb protein expression (p < 0.02). The relationship between Rb protein and IL-6 expression was further studied by suppressing Rb protein expression with antisense oligonucleotides. In three out of seven blasts so treated, IL-6 mRNA was induced following antisense treatment whereas control sense oligonucleotides had no effect. Blasts from four patients which secreted high levels of IL-6 exhibited in vitro autonomous growth which could be partially suppressed by anti-IL-6. These results suggest that deletion of Rb protein expression is a mechanism that can dysregulate IL-6 expression in leukemic blasts and thus potentiate the autonomous growth of these cells.