Interleukin-18-mediated interferon-gamma secretion is regulated by thymosin beta 4 in human NK cells

Ha reum Lee, Sun Young Yoon, Seok Bean Song, Yoorim Park, Tae Sung Kim, Seonghan Kim, Dae Young Hur, Hyun Keun Song, Hyunjeong Park, Daeho Cho

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    15 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Thymosin beta 4 (Tβ4) is the major G-actin sequestering molecule and is abundant in lymphoid tissues. However, it is not clear what regulates Tβ4 expression and what its function is on natural killer (NK) cells. We investigated whether interleukin-18 (IL-18) has a role in Tβ4 expression and if enhanced Tβ4 influences IL-18-mediated interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) secretion. In this study, recombinant human IL-18 (rhIL-18) enhanced the endogenous level of Tβ4 through p38MAPK and JNK signaling pathway in the human NK cell line, NK-92MI. Overexpression of endogeneous Tβ4 stimulated IFN-γ expression and secretion. Additionally, pretreatment with an inhibitor for Tβ4 decreased IL-18-enhanced IFN-γ secretion, and transfection with Tβ4-specific short hairpin RNA resulted in reduction of IFN-γ production in primary NK cells as well as in the human NK cell line. Taken together, these data indicated that Tβ4 is regulated by IL-18 and is involved in IL-18-enhanced IFN-γ secretion in NK cells.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1155-1162
    Number of pages8
    JournalImmunobiology
    Volume216
    Issue number10
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2011 Oct

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (KRF-2008-314-E00092) and National Research Foundation of Korea Grant R11-2005-017-05003-0 funded by the Korean government (Ministry of Education & Science Technology).

    Keywords

    • Interferon-gamma
    • Interleukin-18
    • Natural killer cells
    • Thymosin beta 4

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Immunology and Allergy
    • Immunology
    • Hematology

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