Abstract
The growth of mature T lymphocytes is regulated by interaction between interleukin-2 (IL-2) and its receptor1. Three distinct binding sites for IL-2, namely low- (Kd 10 nM), intermediate- (Kd 100 pM) and high- (Kd 10 pM) affinity sites, have been found on human and primate T lymphocytes2–4. Chemical crosslinking of labelled IL-2 to human T cells shows that two polypeptide chains, p55 (L chain) and p75 (H chain), bind IL-2 with low and intermediate affinities respectively. The high-affinity binding was shown to arise from ternary complex formation of IL-2, L and H chains5. Construction of mutants of the L-chain complementary DNA indicated that the L chain is not directly involved in growth signal transduction6. Nevertheless, expression of the IL-2 receptor L chain is tightly regulated by antigen or mitogen stimulation. To investigate the L chain function, we have produced transgenic mice using human L-chain cDNA of the IL-2 receptor under the control of a constitutive promoter. Studies on the L-chain transgenic mice showed that functionally active IL-2 receptors with high affinity were expressed on unstimulated spleen and thymus cells. The results indicate that the H chain of the IL-2 receptor is constitu-tively expressed in T cells.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Smith, K. A. A. Rev. Immun. 2, 319–333 (1984).
Tsudo, M., Kozak, R. W., Goldman, C. K. & Waldmann, T. A. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 83, 9694–9698 (1986).
Teshigawara, K., Wang, H., Kato, K. & Smith, K. A. J. exp. Med. 165, 223–238 (1986).
Dukovich, M. et al. Nature 327, 518–522 (1987).
Ogura, T. et al. Molec. biol. Med. (in the press).
Kondo, S. et al. Nature 327, 64–67 (1987).
Nikaido, T. et al. Nature 311, 631–635 (1984).
Kvist, S., Robert, L. & Dobberstein, B. EMBO J. 2, 245–254 (1983).
Credig, R., Lowenthal, J. W., Nabholz, M. & MacDonald, H. R. Nature 314, 98–100 (1985).
Raulet, D. H. Nature 314, 101–103 (1985).
Uchiyama, T., Broder, S. & Waldmann, T. A. J. Immun. 126, 1393–1397 (1981).
Hatakeyama, M. et al. Nature 318, 467–470 (1985).
Kondo, S. et al. Nature 320, 75–77 (1986).
Lifson, J. et al. J. biol. Resp. Mod. 5, 61–72 (1986).
von Boehmer, H., Crisanti, A., Kisielow, P. & Haas, W. Nature 314, 539–540 (1985).
Lowenthal, J. W., Zubler, R. H., Nabholz, M. & MacDonald, H. R. Nature 315, 669–672 (1985).
Siegel, J. P., Sharon, M., Smith, P. L. & Leonard, W. J. Science 238, 75–78 (1987).
Ullrich, A. et al. Nature 309, 418–425 (1984).
Hogan, B., Constantini, F. & Lacy, E. in Manipulating the Mouse Embryo—a Laboratory Manual (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, 1986).
Gills, S., Ferm, M. M. Ou, W. & Smith, K. A. J. Immun. 120, 2027–2032 (1978).
Miyoshi, I. et al. Gann 71, 155–156 (1980).
Maniatis, T., Fritsch, E. F. & Sambrook, J. in Molecular Cloning (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, 1982).
Melton, D. A. et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 12, 7035–7056 (1984).
Bolton, A. E. & Hunter, W. M. Biochem. J. 133, 529–531 (1973).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nishi, M., Ishida, Y. & Honjo, T. Expression of functional interleukin-2 receptors in human light chain/Tac ransgenic mice. Nature 331, 267–269 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/331267a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/331267a0
This article is cited by
-
Efficient thymic immigration of B220+ lymphoid-restricted bone marrow cells with T precursor potential
Nature Immunology (2003)
-
Tracing lymphopoiesis with the aid of a pTα-controlled reporter gene
Nature Immunology (2002)
-
Cblb is a major susceptibility gene for rat type 1 diabetes mellitus
Nature Genetics (2002)
-
Alymphoplasia is caused by a point mutation in the mouse gene encoding Nf-κb-inducing kinase
Nature Genetics (1999)
-
Acute onset of diabetic pathological changes in transgenic mice with human aldose reductase cDNA
Diabetologia (1995)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.