Abstract
Elevated temperature has profound effects on the immune system, particularly by increasing T-cell proliferation rates, interleukin 1 (IL-1)-driven secretion of IL-2, and primary antibody responses to T-dependent antigens. Therefore, this study shows, in detail, the effects of incubation temperature (29°C to 41°C) on proliferation, IL-2 secretion, and IL-2 mRNA expression in both a murine thymoma cell line (EL4-6.1) and in nontransformed murine splenocytes. Temperature was found to be a positive regulator of IL-2 secretion whether or not IL-1 was part of the activation signal. Parallel effects were observed at the level of IL-2 gene expression. Messenger RNA was quantitated with a novel system, using solution hybridization followed by detection of RNA-DNA complexes by enzyme immunoassay. The time to onset of IL-2 mRNA expression was inversely related to temperature, and mRNA levels increased 20- to 50-fold with increases in average incubation temperature from 29°C to 39°C. This effect was observed whether cells were incubated at constant temperature or exposed intermittently to elevated temperature. Over the same intervals of time and temperature, mRNA levels for τ-actin and β-tubulin remained relatively constant. Taken together, these findings suggest that temperature-mediated augmentation of IL-2 secretion does not require the presence of IL-1, and that the effect occurs at a pretranslational level.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 389-397 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Cytokine |
Volume | 3 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 1991 |
Keywords
- IL-2
- temperature
- transcription
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Immunology and Allergy
- Immunology
- Biochemistry
- Hematology
- Molecular Biology