Open AccessRole of IL‐15 in HIV‐1‐associated hypergammaglobulinaemia
Author(s) -
KACANI L.,
STOIBER H.,
DIERICH M. P.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
clinical & experimental immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.329
H-Index - 135
eISSN - 1365-2249
pISSN - 0009-9104
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2249.1997.d01-972.x
Subject(s) - immunology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , hypergammaglobulinemia , immunopathology , virology , medicine , biology , antibody
IL‐15 is a novel cytokine, produced by monocytes/macrophages, with biological activities similar to IL‐2 but with no significant sequence homology. IL‐15 also stimulates human B cells to proliferation and immunoglobulin secretion. We measured serum levels of IL‐15 in 84 HIV‐1‐infected individuals at different stages of disease in reference to 41 healthy blood donors. Our results show a marked elevation of IL‐15 serum levels during HIV‐1 infection. Moreover, we found that this increase correlated with serum levels of IgG ( r =0.376, P <0.0001), and partly with serum IgM ( r =0.265, P <0.0015). A significant increase of IL‐15 production by cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and purified monocytes in the presence of HIV‐1 virus suggests that monocytes/macrophages may be a source of higher IL‐15 serum levels in HIV‐1‐infected individuals. These findings indicate a participation of IL‐15 in the hypergammaglobulinaemia frequently associated with HIV‐1 infection.