Lantz C S, Boesiger J, Song C H, Mach N, Kobayashi T, Mulligan R C, Nawa Y, Dranoff G, Galli S J
Department of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
Nature. 1998 Mar 5;392(6671):90-3. doi: 10.1038/32190.
The cytokine interleukin-3 (IL-3), which can be derived from T cells and other sources, is a potentially important link between the immune and haematopoietic systems. IL-3 may be particularly critical for the development, survival and function of tissue mast cells and blood basophils, which are thought to be important effector cells in immunity to parasites and other immunological responses, such as allergic reactions. Here we show, using IL-3-deficient mice, that IL-3 is not essential for the generation of mast cells or basophils under physiological conditions, but that it does contribute to increased numbers of tissue mast cells, enhanced basophil production, and immunity in mice infected with the nematode Stronglyoides venezuelensis. Parasite expulsion and mast-cell development are impaired even more severely in IL-3-deficient mice that also show a marked reduction in signalling by c-kit. These findings establish a role for IL-3 in immunity to parasites and indicate that one of the functions of IL-3 in host defence against infection is to expand populations of haematopoietic effector cells.
细胞因子白细胞介素-3（IL-3）可来源于T细胞及其他来源，它是免疫和造血系统之间潜在的重要联系。IL-3对于组织肥大细胞和血液嗜碱性粒细胞的发育、存活及功能可能尤为关键，这些细胞被认为是抗寄生虫免疫及其他免疫反应（如过敏反应）中的重要效应细胞。在此，我们利用IL-3基因缺陷小鼠表明，在生理条件下，IL-3对于肥大细胞或嗜碱性粒细胞的生成并非必不可少，但它确实有助于增加组织肥大细胞的数量、增强嗜碱性粒细胞的产生，并增强感染委内瑞拉类圆线虫的小鼠的免疫力。在IL-3基因缺陷小鼠中，寄生虫排出和肥大细胞发育受到更严重的损害，这些小鼠还表现出c-kit信号传导明显减少。这些发现确立了IL-3在抗寄生虫免疫中的作用，并表明IL-3在宿主抗感染防御中的功能之一是扩大造血效应细胞群体。
