title: IL-7 and lymphopenia.
abstract: Interleukin-7 (IL-7) is a growth and anti-apoptotic factor for T-lymphocytes, with potential for clinical use in the treatment of immunodeficiencies due to loss of T-cells. Lymphopenia induced by disease (HIV infection, hemodialysis or Idiopathic CD4+ lymphopenia) or by treatment (high dose chemotherapy or depleting antibodies) for cancer or auto-immune diseases results in increased circulating levels of IL-7 which decline with T-cell recovery, however, the mechanism of such response remains to be elucidated. Furthermore, IL-7 is a major player in the regulation of peripheral T-cell homeostasis and as such is an important candidate cytokine for therapy aimed at improving T-cell reconstitution following lymphopenia. Anti- IL-7 is on the other hand proposed to treat conditions where IL-7 may play a more direct role in pathogenesis such as autoimmune disease like Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis or Inflammatory Bowel disease.
authors.affiliation: Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, Section of Musculoskeletal disease, the University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. F.Ponchel@leeds.ac.uk
authors.forename: Frederique
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ponchel
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Cuthbert
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Goëb
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015551:Autoimmunity; D006706:Homeostasis; D006801:Humans; D015851:Interleukin-7 / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D008231:Lymphopenia / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000628:therapy; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D015851:Interleukin-7