Interleukin 13, an interleukin 4-like cytokine that acts on monocytes and B cells, but not on T cells.
Interleukin 13 (IL-13) is a recently described protein secreted by activated T cells which is a potent in vitro modulator of human monocyte and B-cell functions. The data, reviewed here by Gerard Zurawski and Jan de Vries, shows that IL-13 shares biological activities with IL-4, their genes are closely linked in both the human and mouse genomes, and there is sequence homology between IL-13 and IL-4 proteins. Although the cloned IL-4 receptor protein (IL-4R) does not bind IL-13, it appears that the functional IL-4R and IL-13R share a common subunit that is important for signal transduction.
Zurawski
G
G
Dept of Molecular Biology, DNAX Research Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Palo Alto, CA 94304-1104.
de Vries
J E
JE
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D018793:Interleukin-13; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000502:physiology*; D007378:Interleukins / Q000502:physiology*; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
D018793:Interleukin-13; D007378:Interleukins; D015847:Interleukin-4