Interleukin-15 as a potential regulator of the innate immune response

• Autor(a) principal: Carson,W.
• Data de Publicação: 1998
• Outros Autores: Caligiuri,M.A.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-879X1998000100001
• topic: interleukin-15; interleukin-12; gamma interferon; natural killer cell; innate immunity

Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is a newly-discovered cytokine that is produced by activated monocytes early in the course of the innate immune response. IL-15 is able to bind to components of the interleukin-2 receptor (IL-2R) despite the fact that it has no sequence homology with IL-2. IL-15 stimulates human natural killer cell proliferation, cytotoxicity, and cytokine production and can substitute for IL-2 under most conditions. In vitro studies indicate that monocyte-derived IL-15 may be an important determinant of IFN-gamma production by NK cells. In addition, IL-15 is able to promote the survival of natural killer cells under serum-free conditions. The IL-15 receptor is a heterotrimeric complex which is composed of the IL-2Rß and <FONT FACE="Symbol">g</font> chains in combination with a unique alpha chain (IL-15<FONT FACE="Symbol">a</font>). The IL-15R<FONT FACE="Symbol">a</font> chain has strong sequence homology to the IL-2R<FONT FACE="Symbol">a</font> chain and confers high affinity binding to the IL-15R. In contrast to IL-2, transcript for IL-15 and IL-15<FONT FACE="Symbol">a</font> is expressed in a number of tissues and indicates that IL-15 may be an important ligand for cells that express components of the IL-2R