title: Interleukin-2: a possible trigger for autoimmunity.
abstract: High doses of recombinant interleukin-2 (IL-2) may induce autoimmune lesions in patients receiving experimental cancer treatment. In most cases, the manifestation of autoaggression is transient and organ-specific, predominantly affecting the thyroid gland. Only a fraction of the patients are concerned; most individuals (around 90%) do not develop any signs of autoimmunity. Apparently, endogenously hyperproduced IL-2 may also be implicated in the pathogenesis of autoaggression, since active phases of such disparate autoimmune diseases, like multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus, are accompanied by elevated IL-2 serum levels. Taking into account that immunological self-tolerance is maintained by several distinct mechanisms, we investigated whether IL-2 would interfere with clonal deletion or clonal anergy in vivo. In several experimental systems, IL-2 failed to abolish clonal deletion in the murine thymus or in the peripheral T-cell compartment. IL-2 did not affect the clonal deletion of self-reactive B cells in the bone marrow either. In contrast, IL-2 was found to be effective in abrogating clonal anergy of non-deleted self-specific T cells. Only in the presence of high frequencies of self-specific, potentially autoreactive T cells, IL-2 induces autoimmune lesions. Thus, IL-2 interferes with a mechanism of self-tolerance that guarantees the inactivation of T cells that for some reason have 'escaped' clonal deletion. If these data, obtained in the murine system, are extrapolated to man, then it may be stated that the T-cell repertoire of most individuals has been completely purged from self-reactive cells. Only in the presence of a non-deleted, anergic, potentially auto-reactive T-cell population, could organ-specific disease be induced by IL-2.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Biología Molecular (CSIC), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, España.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Gonzalo
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cuende
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Alés-Martínez
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kroemer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001324:Autoantigens / Q000276:immunology; D015551:Autoimmunity / Q000502:physiology*; D016923:Cell Death / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D001324:Autoantigens; D007376:Interleukin-2