Alternative splicing of interleukin-7 (IL-7) and interleukin-7 receptor alpha (IL-7Rα) in peripheral blood from patients with multiple sclerosis (MS)

Rane, Lalit; Vudattu, Nalini; Bourcier, Kasia; Graniar, Eva; Hillert, Jan; Seyfert, Vicki; Maeurer, M J

doi:10.1016/j.jneuroim.2010.02.014

« Previous Next »Journal of Neuroimmunology
Volume 222, Issue 1 , Pages 82-86, May 2010

Alternative splicing of interleukin-7 (IL-7) and interleukin-7 receptor alpha (IL-7Rα) in peripheral blood from patients with multiple sclerosis (MS)

Lalit Rane
- Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC), Nobels Väg 18, Karolinska Institutet, SE-17182 Stockholm, Sweden
- Smittskyddsinstitutet, Translational Immunology (TRIM), Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, SE-17182 Stockholm, Sweden
Nalini Vudattu
- Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC), Nobels Väg 18, Karolinska Institutet, SE-17182 Stockholm, Sweden
Kasia Bourcier
- Immune Tolerance Network, Dept of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
Eva Graniar
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
Jan Hillert
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
Vicki Seyfert
- Immune Tolerance Network, Dept of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
M J Maeurer
- Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC), Nobels Väg 18, Karolinska Institutet, SE-17182 Stockholm, Sweden
- Smittskyddsinstitutet, Translational Immunology (TRIM), Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, SE-17182 Stockholm, Sweden
- Corresponding author. Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC) and SMI, Nobels Väg 18, SE-171 82 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel.: +46 8 457 2650; fax: +46 8 33 74 60.

Received 10 October 2009; received in revised form 27 January 2010; accepted 15 February 2010. published online 12 March 2010.

Abstract

IL-7 and IL-7Rα (IL-7R) form a non-redundant ligand receptor system which plays a crucial role in human T cell immunity. Both IL-7 and IL-7R are multi-exonal genes and exhibit alternative splicing. We measured the relative distribution of IL-7 and IL-7R spliced mRNA from patients with MS and healthy individuals and observed extensive alternative splicing of both genes with marked differences in proportional transcript expression levels. We report here for the first time that the IL-7 transcript, lacking exon 4, and not the full length IL-7 represents the dominant IL-7 RNA transcript in human PBMCs and a novel IL-7R splice variant lacking exons 5, 6 and 7.

Keywords: T-cells, MS, CD127, Interleukin-7, IL-7 receptor, Alternative splicing