Premium
Interactions of tunicate immunomodulatory proteins with mammalian cells
Author(s) -
RAFTOS DAVID
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
immunology and cell biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.999
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1440-1711
pISSN - 0818-9641
DOI - 10.1038/icb.1996.3
Subject(s) - microbiology and biotechnology , receptor , tunicate , biology , secretion , antibody , thymocyte , cytokine , t cell , immunology , immune system , biochemistry , ecology
Summary The ability of a tunicate immunomodulatory protein, tunIL1, to interact with mammalian cells was investigated. Tun IL1 is known to regulate inflammatory defence reactions in tunicates and to stimulate the proliferation of mammalian thymocytes. In the current study, tunIL1 was shown to enchance L929 fibroblast proliferation, induce IL‐2 secretion from human mononuclear cells and enhance IL‐2 receptor expression by EL‐4 murine lymphoma cells. These biological activities are comparable with those of the mammalian inflammatory cytokine, IL‐1. However, tunIL1 does not appear to stimulate its effects on mammalian cells by interacting with cell surface receptors in a manner analogous to mammalian IL‐1. TunIL1 cannot block the binding of anti‐IL‐1 receptor antibodies to EL‐4 cells, nor can anti‐IL‐1 receptor antibodies inhibit the capacity of tunILl to stimulate thymocyte proliferation. This indicates that tunIL1 does not induce its IL‐1‐like activities via structural homology to mammalian IL‐1.