title: Characterization and expression analysis of a chicken interleukin-6 receptor alpha.
abstract: Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine that plays roles in regulating immune responses, acute phase reactions and hematopoiesis. IL-6 signaling is regulated by two receptors, a specific alpha chain (IL-6Ralpha) and a signal transducer, gp130. In this study, cDNA encoding the 445 amino acid propeptide of chicken IL-6Ralpha (chIL-6Ralpha) was identified. The predicted 445 amino acids showed approximately 40% sequence identity with mammalian homologues. In a domain search, chIL-6Ralpha had a signal peptide of 20 residues, an immunoglobulin-like (IG) domain of 71 residues and a fibronectin-type III (FN III) domain of 85 residues. On comparison with mammalian homologues, four conserved cysteine residues and the WSXWS motif were observed in the N- and C-terminal regions of the FN III domain, respectively. Expression analysis revealed that chIL-6Ralpha is strongly expressed in liver and the chicken hepatoma cell line LMH. These findings indicate that the identified chicken cDNA sequence encodes a chIL-6Ralpha homologue.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunobiology, Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, 1-4-4 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8528, Japan.
authors.forename: Norihisa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nishimichi
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawashima
authors.forename: Shintaro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hojyo
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Horiuchi
authors.forename: Shuichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Furusawa
authors.forename: Haruo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsuda
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002645:Chickens / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009928:Organ Specificity; D019947:Receptors, Interleukin-6 / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D019947:Receptors, Interleukin-6; C113250:interleukin-6 receptor alpha