Interleukin-15 and its role in chronic inflammatory diseases.
This review focuses on the biological effects of the newly discovered cytokine, interleukin 15 (IL-15), in chronic inflammatory disorders. IL-15 shares biological activities with IL-2, and like IL-2 it is a member of the four-helix bundle cytokine family. IL-15 interacts with a heterotrimeric receptor that consists of the beta and gamma subunits of the IL-2 receptor (IL-2R) as well as a specific, high-affinity IL-15-binding subunit, IL-1SRalpha. IL-15 is produced by macrophages and various other cells in response to environmental stimuli and infectious agents, and it is important for the growth and differentiation of T and B lymphocytes, natural killer cells, macrophages, and monocytes as well as it activates a number of important intracellular signaling molecules, including the Janus kinases and members of the transcription factor family of signal transducers and activators of transcription. These facts suggest that IL- 15 may play a pivotal role both in protective immune responses and in the pathogenesis of various chronic immuno-inflammatory disorders. The important new insight into the role of IL-15 in diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, sarcoidosis, chronic hepatitis C, and ulcerative colitis are reviewed in this paper.
Kirman
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I
The James Buchanan Brady Foundation, Department of Urology, Cornell Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
Vainer
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B
Nielsen
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OH
D000818:Animals; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D019409:Interleukin-15 / Q000502:physiology*; D008264:Macrophages / Q000502:physiology
D019409:Interleukin-15