For those who have a family history of leukemia and other cancers, it is vital to know how to determine your risks for these diseases.

One of the determining factors in diagnosing is with your LIF protein levels.

It is important that these protein levels are regulated to prevent health issues.

Read on to learn how LIF alters the human body, what it means if they are imbalanced, and how to know if you have a risk of cancer due to your levels.

What is LIF?

LIF (Leukemia Inhibitory Factor) is a secreted protein found in many different systems in the body and plays several different roles depending on the location.

This secreted protein belongs to the IL-6 family.

One of the primary roles it plays is in the implantation of an embryo.

It can cause leukemia cells to grow, helps brain cells develop, renews stem cells, and give off an inflammatory response in your body.

The leukemia inhibitory factor can also be to blame for the progression in numerous cancers, since it has been known to promote development and progression of tumors.

What LIF does in your body depends on many things, including where it is in your body.

Too much LIF in your body could mean you may develop breast, bladder, colon, or lung cancer.

It can also aid in the development and growth of melanoma, plus head or neck cancer.

If there is too little LIF in women, it can cause infertility due to the embryo not being able to attach.

Higher levels of LIF have also been seen in people with sepsis (a serious infection which is a form of blood poisoning caused by bacterial growth).

Diagnosing issues

To determine the levels of LIF your body expresses, a RIA (Radio immunoassay) test is done.

This measures the levels in your blood by marking the cells with a radioactive atom or substance.

RIA is done by placing a blood sample in a test tube or culture dish with a radioactive labeled version and an antibody.

Any unbound substrates are washed and then run through a gamma counter, which counts the level of LIF.

It is a very sensitive procedure that is done in a lab.

LIF circulating detection rates are measured by percentages of serum concentrations of the protein.

Acute inflammatory diseases typically have 69% circulation of LIF.

Chronic inflammatory diseases tend to have 83%, noninflammatory diseases typically have 61%, cancer patients usually show around 90%.

Treatment to regulate

There are a few ways in which LIF can be regulated, depending on the reason it needs to be regulated and where in the body it is.

For women who do not have enough and are having issues with poorly implanted embryos or embryos not being able to attach at all, the use of Estrogen has proven to be a big help.

Estrogen has been known to induce expression of LIF in the uterus.

The use of neutralizing antibodies (nAb) is used to block LIF production in the case of many cancers or when the levels are too high.

A LIF nAb along with immune checkpoint inhibitor medications such as Keytruda, Opdivo or Libtayo have been shown to be good treatments in suppressing further secretion from occurring.

Another treatment that has proven to work is a nAb called MSC-1 which is still in clinical trials at the moment.

The regulation of LIF can be a tricky process, as it is still under investigation as to how it gets expressed in certain areas of the body and the roles it plays.

Some treatments include regulating the cells and other genes that LIF has attached itself to in order to inhibit it from being secreted more