title: Interleukin-2 transcripts in human and rodent brains: possible expression by astrocytes.
abstract: Cytokines have been suggested to be involved in the cross talk between the immune and the nervous systems, under normal and pathological conditions. For example, the cytokine interleukin-2 was suggested to be involved in response to CNS trauma and spontaneous regeneration. Here, we examined whether mammalian CNS has an intrinsic potential to produce interleukin-2 and, if so, what its cellular origin is. mRNA sequences encoding for interleukin-2 were detected in brains of humans and rodents. Northern blot analysis revealed the presence of several interleukin-2 transcripts of different sizes in the brain, all recognized by lymphocyte-derived interleukin-2 cDNA probes. One of the transcripts, a high molecular weight form of approximately 5 kb, appeared to be unique to the brain. Reverse transcription and amplification by PCR of human fetal brain mRNA revealed one cDNA product that, upon sequence analysis, showed a high degree of homology with the human lymphocyte-derived interleukin-2 coding sequence. To identify the possible cellular source of the interleukin-2 transcripts within the mammalian brain, we similarly analyzed mRNA of rat brain cells in culture. Northern blot analysis revealed that astrocytes contain transcripts that hybridize with interleukin-2 cDNA probe. These findings point to the astrocytes as a possible source of brain interleukin-2.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Eizenberg
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Faber-Elman
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lotan
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schwartz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000737:chemistry*; D001483:Base Sequence; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000235:genetics*; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000737:chemistry; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis*; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D007376:Interleukin-2; D012333:RNA, Messenger