OSM is a pleiotropic cytokine that initiates its biological activities by binding to specific cell surface receptors. The gp130, a signal transducing component ( beta subunit) of the IL-6, LIF and CNTF receptor complexes, was identified as a low-affinity OSM receptor that does not transduce OSM signals. The low affinity LIF receptor (LIF R, a gp130-related protein) has now been identified to be a component of a high-affinity OSM receptor that will transduce OSM signals. Since OSM is also active on cells that do not express LIF R, a specific OSM receptor that does not involve LIF R must also exist. Besides its growth inhibitory activities on human A375 melanoma and mouse M1 myeloid leukemic cells, as well as on other solid tumor cells, OSM also has growth stimulatory activities on normal fibroblasts, AIDS-Kaposi’s sarcoma cells, and a human erythroleukemia cell line, TF-1. Other OSM-mediated activities reported to date include: stimulation of plasminogen activator activity in cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells; regulation of IL-6 expression in human endothelial cells; and stimulation of LDL uptake and up-regulation of cell surface LDL receptors in HepG2 cells.