Department of Immune Regulation, Immunology Frontier Research Center, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
Department of Advanced Clinical and Translational Immunology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
J Exp Med. 2020 May 4;217(5). doi: 10.1084/jem.20190347.
Interleukin-6 (IL-6) has been identified as a 26-kD secreted protein that stimulates B cells to produce antibodies. Later, IL-6 was revealed to have various functions that overlap with other IL-6 family cytokines and use the common IL-6 signal transducer gp130. IL-6 stimulates cells through multiple pathways, using both membrane and soluble IL-6 receptors. As indicated by the expanding market for IL-6 inhibitors, it has become a primary therapeutic target among IL-6 family cytokines. Here, we revisit the discovery of IL-6; discuss insights regarding the roles of this family of cytokines; and highlight recent advances in our understanding of regulation of IL-6 expression.
白细胞介素 6（IL-6）已被鉴定为一种 26kDa 的分泌蛋白，可刺激 B 细胞产生抗体。后来，IL-6 被揭示具有与其他白细胞介素 6 家族细胞因子重叠的多种功能，并使用共同的白细胞介素 6 信号转导蛋白 gp130。IL-6 通过多种途径刺激细胞，既使用膜结合型白细胞介素 6 受体，也使用可溶性白细胞介素 6 受体。正如白细胞介素 6 抑制剂不断扩大的市场所表明的那样，它已成为白细胞介素 6 家族细胞因子的主要治疗靶点。在这里，我们重新审视了白细胞介素 6 的发现；讨论了关于这个细胞因子家族作用的新见解；并强调了我们对白细胞介素 6 表达调控的理解的最新进展。
