title: The role of interleukin 15 in mounting an immune response against microbial infections.
abstract: Interleukin (IL)-15 is a recently described cytokine that resembles IL-2 in its biological activities, stimulating natural killer cells, T cells and B cells to proliferate, secrete cytokines, and exhibit increased cytotoxicities or produce antibody. IL-15 also exerts unique functions such as stimulation of phagocytes, maintenance of mast cells and migration of activated/memory T cells. IL-15 is involved in protection against infections with a variety of microbes through not only activating innate immunity but also mounting adaptive immunity.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Host Defense and Germfree Life, Research Institute for Disease Mechanism and Control, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yoshikai
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nishimura
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D007109:Immunity; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D007239:Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000821:virology; D019409:Interleukin-15 / Q000276:immunology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D051379:Mice
chemical_list: D019409:Interleukin-15