Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is an immunomodulating cytokine. The gene encoding it is localized on chromosome 4q31. Human IL-15 is biologically active on mouse cells as measured by the dose-dependent stimulation of the proliferation of mouse CTLL cells. Recombinant human IL-15 is a 12.9kDa protein consisting of 115 amino acid residues.
Interleukin-15 (IL-15) stimulates the proliferation of T lymphocytes and shares many biological properties with IL-2. It exerts its biological activities primarily on T cells. It is also essential in the development, survival and activation of NK cells. On binding to its receptor, IL-15 is indirectly involved in activating proto-oncogenes. Increased expression of IL-15 has been implicated with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis and diseases affiliated with retroviruses like human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and human T-lymphotropic virus-1 (HTLV-I).
Interleukin-15 Human Recombinant produced in E.Coli is a single, non-glycosylated polypeptide chain containing 114 amino acids and having a molecular mass of 12.9kDa.
The IL-15 is purified by proprietary chromatographic techniques.
The protein encoded by this gene is a cytokine that regulates T and natural killer cell activation and proliferation. This cytokine and interleukine 2 share many biological activities. They are found to bind common hematopoietin receptor subunits, and may compete for the same receptor, and thus negatively regulate each other's activity. The number of CD8+ memory cells is shown to be controlled by a balance between this cytokine and IL2. This cytokine induces the activation of JAK kinases, as well as the phosphorylation and activation of transcription activators STAT3, STAT5, and STAT6. Studies of the mouse counterpart suggested that this cytokine may increase the expression of apoptosis inhibitor BCL2L1/BCL-x(L), possibly through the transcription activation activity of STAT6, and thus prevent apoptosis. Two alternatively spliced transcript variants of this gene encoding the same protein have been reported.
