Expression of interleukin-15 and its receptor on the surface of stimulated human umbilical vein endothelial cells.

Human interleukin-15 (hIL-15) is an important cytokine to activate endothelial cells and can be regulated by many other cytokines. The aim of this study is to examine the ability of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) to induce the production of human interleukin-15 (hIL-15) and IL-15 receptor (IL-15Ralpha) by human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). The data are summarized as follows: 1. Northern blot revealed that IL-15 mRNA was up-regulated by IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha. 2. Intracellular IL-15 protein was visualized by fluorescence microscopy, whereas the expression of IL-15 on the surface of HUVECs was detected by fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS), and no detectable IL-15 in the medium was verified by ELISA. 3. IL-15Ralpha was detected on the surface of HUVECs by FACS after IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha stimulation, whereas Western blotting revealed that the elevated expression on surface IL-15Ralpha was not due to the increased protein expression. The conclusion demonstrated from our results is that IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha play an important role in regulating the expression of IL-15 and IL-15Ralpha on the surface of HUVECs.