Cloning and sequence of guinea pig interleukin 2 (IL-2).

Interleukin 2 (IL-2) is a T-cell proliferation factor released from TH0- and TH1-type helper T-cells and is an essential cytokine for certain immune responses. We reported here cloning and sequence of IL-2 cDNA in guinea pigs, which have been used for a long time in various immunological experiments and in vivo screening tests for skin sensitization potential of chemicals. Consequently, a cDNA clone was obtained encoding guinea pig IL-2 of 520 bp in length, which contained a complete open reading frame. Alignment of the amino acid sequence with human IL-2 indicates that guinea pig IL-2 is composed of 20 amino acids (aa) of a signal peptide and 132 aa of a mature peptide with a predicted molecular weight of 15133. Guinea pig IL-2 has an amino acid homology of 62% with human IL-2, 52% with murine IL-2, and 55% with rat IL-2. In addition, guinea pig IL-2 has a possible N-linked glycosylation site as seen in bovine and porcine IL-2.