Molecular cloning of feline interferon-gamma-inducing factor (interleukin-18) and its expression in various tissues.
Interleukin-18 (IL-18) is a cytokine with potent interferon-gamma-inducing activity, and plays an important biologic role in the enhancement of the activity of natural killer cells and cytotoxic T-lymphocytes. In this study, feline IL-18 cDNA was cloned and characterized to establish a basis for the prospective cytokine therapy in small animal practice. The nucleotide sequence of feline IL-18 cDNA obtained in this study was 712bp long and contained its entire open reading frame encoding 192 amino acid residues. The predicted amino acid sequence of feline IL-18 cDNA showed 77.2, 84.8, 60.2 and 62.6% similarity with those of human, dog, rat and mouse counterparts, respectively. The feline IL-18 cDNA included a putative cleavage site of IL-1beta-converting enzyme (ICE) and IL-1 signature-like sequences identified in human and mouse IL-18 cDNAs. Expression of IL-18 mRNA was detected in various tissues including spleen, liver and cerebrum in the cat.
Ishizaka
T
T
Department of Veterinary Internal Medicine, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Science, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, 113-8657, Tokyo, Japan. aohno@mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Setoguchi
A
A
Masuda
K
K
Ohno
K
K
Tsujimoto
H
H
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002415:Cats; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D004285:Dogs; D006801:Humans; D020382:Interleukin-18 / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics*; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D051381:Rats; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013154:Spleen / Q000378:metabolism; D013687:Telencephalon / Q000378:metabolism
D018076:DNA, Complementary; D020382:Interleukin-18; D012333:RNA, Messenger