Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2007 Jan;55(1):51-8.

[Analysis of gammac-dependent cytokines-mediated immunoregulation]

[Article in Japanese]
Hironobu Asao  1
Affiliations
  • PMID: 17319491
Review

[Analysis of gammac-dependent cytokines-mediated immunoregulation]

[Article in Japanese]
Hironobu Asao. Rinsho Byori. 2007 Jan.

Abstract

In the study of interleukin-2 (IL-2) -induced signal transduction system, we identified and cloned the third component of IL-2 receptor, IL-2Rgamma chain. Functional high affinity IL-2 receptor consists of three subunits, alpha, beta and gamma chains. Interestingly not only IL-2 but also IL-4, IL-7, IL-9, IL-15 and IL-21 utilize the gamma chain as an essential component of each receptors. Therefore the gamma chain is now called as a common gamma chain (gammac). Moreover the gene of gammac is on the X chromosome, and mutations of gammac gene cause human X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (X-SCID) characterized by a complete or profound defect of T cells and NK cells, and by the presence of dysfunctional B cells. The dysfunctions in IL-7- and IL-15-induced signal transduction cause the T cell and NK cell defect, respectively and dysfunctions in both IL-4- and IL-21-induced signal transduction cause the B cell dysfunction in X-SCID patients. Gene therapy is a good candidate for X-SCID treatment because only the HLA-matched bone marrow transplantation is an effective therapy. Unfortunately because of an unexpected adverse effect, such gene therapy using retrovirus vector is now aborted. IL-21 is a recently identified cytokine, which shares the gammac. IL-21 regulates the proliferation of T cells, the proliferation and differentiation of B cells, and the activation and expansion of NK cells. We demonstrated that human IL-21 was produced from activated CD4+ central and effector memory T cells but not from naive CD4+ T cells nor CD8+ T cells. Furthermore we found that IL-21 supported cytokine-driven proliferation of CD4+ helper T cells cooperatively with IL-7 and IL-15.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources