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Interleukin‐15 production at the early stage after oral infection with Listeria monocytogenes in mice
Author(s) -
Akio Mitani,
Hitoshi Nishimura,
Kenji Hirose,
Junji Washizu,
Yoshinobu Kimura,
Shigeo Tanaka,
Genta Yamamoto,
Toshihide Noguchi,
Yasunobu Yoshikai
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.297
H-Index - 133
eISSN - 1365-2567
pISSN - 0019-2805
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2567.1999.00752.x
Subject(s) - listeria monocytogenes , intraepithelial lymphocyte , biology , immunology , interleukin , immune system , in vivo , interferon gamma , cytokine , microbiology and biotechnology , bacteria , genetics
We previously reported that exogenous interleukin‐15 (IL‐15) induces proliferation and activation of intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (i‐IEL) in naive mice. To investigate the ability of endogenous IL‐15 to stimulate i‐IEL in vivo , we monitored i‐IEL and intestinal epithelial cells (i‐EC) in mice after an oral infection with Listeria monocytogenes . Although the populations of αβ and γδ i‐IEL were not significantly changed after the oral infection, the expression level of interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ) was increased both at transcriptional and protein levels, and a conversely marked decrease in interleukin‐4 (IL‐4) was detected in the i‐IEL on day 1 after infection as compared with before infection. The T helper 1 (Th1)‐biased response of i‐IEL coincided with a peak response of IL‐15 production in the i‐EC after oral infection. These results suggested that IL‐15 produced from i‐EC may be at least partly involved in the stimulation of i‐IEL to produce IFN‐γ after oral infection with L. monocytogenes .