heres a more complete copy and paste lol:
Interleukin (IL)-15 seems like some seriously interesting stuff. Has anyone else been readingabout this? there seems to be lots of new research because of its possible use for AIDs treatment (it prevented AIDs onset in HIV positive mice). For us its interesting because it boosts the immune system, causes skeletal muscle hypertrophy in large doses and reduces fat mass. Sorry if this is old news but I have just started researching muscle hypertrophy so I might be behind the times as I have spent the last year or so reading about fat loss and energy balance. Anyway here are some studies enjoy.
QUOTE
Interleukin-15 mediates reciprocal regulation of adipose and muscle mass: a potential role in body weight control.
Carbo N, Lopez-Soriano J, Costelli P, Alvarez B, Busquets S, Baccino FM, Quinn LS, Lopez-Soriano FJ, Argiles JM.
Departament de Bioquimica i Biologia Molecular, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.
Interleukin (IL)-15 is a cytokine which is highly expressed in skeletal muscle. Cell culture studies have indicated that IL-15 may have an important role in muscle fiber growth and anabolism. However, data concerning the metabolic effects of this cytokine in vivo are lacking. In the present study, IL-15 was administered to adult rats for 7 days. While IL-15 did not cause changes in either muscle mass or muscle protein content, it induced significant changes in the fractional rates of both muscle protein synthesis and degradation, with no net changes in protein accumulation. Additionally, IL-15 administration resulted in a 33% decrease in white adipose tissue mass and a 20% decrease in circulating triacylglycerols; this was associated with a 47% lower hepatic lipogenic rate and a 36% lower plasma VLDL triacylglycerol content. The decrease in white fat induced by IL-15 was in adipose tissue. No changes were observed in the rate of lipolysis as a result of cytokine administration. These findings indicate that IL-15 has significant effects on both protein and lipid metabolism, and suggest that this cytokine may participate in reciprocal regulation of muscle and adipose tissue mass.
QUOTE
Overexpression of interleukin-15 induces skeletal muscle hypertrophy in vitro: implications for treatment of muscle wasting disorders.
Quinn LS, Anderson BG, Drivdahl RH, Alvarez B, Argiles JM.
Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle 98195, USA.
[email protected]
Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is a novel anabolic factor for skeletal muscle which inhibits muscle wasting associated with cancer (cachexia) in a rat model. To develop a cell culture system in which the mechanism of the anabolic action of IL-15 on skeletal muscle could be examined, the mouse C2 skeletal myogenic cell line was transduced with a retroviral expression vector for IL-15 and compared to sister cells transduced with a control vector. Overexpression of IL-15 induced fivefold higher levels of sarcomeric myosin heavy chain and alpha-actin accumulation in differentiated myotubes. Secreted factors from IL-15-overexpressing myogenic cells, but not from control cells, induced increased myofibrillar protein accumulation in cocultured control myotubes. IL-15 overexpression induced a hypertrophic myotube morphology similar to that described for cultured myotubes which overexpressed the well-characterized anabolic factor insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I). However, in contrast to IGF-I, the hypertrophic action of IL-15 on skeletal myogenic cells did not involve stimulation of skeletal myoblast proliferation or differentiation. IL-15 induced myotube hypertrophy at both low and high IGF-I concentrations. Furthermore, in contrast to IGF-I, which stimulated only protein synthesis under these culture conditions, IL-15 both stimulated protein synthesis and inhibited protein degradation in cultured skeletal myotubes. These findings indicate that IL-15 action on skeletal myogenic cells is distinct from that of IGF-I. Due to the ability of IGF-I to stimulate cell division and its association with several forms of cancer, controversy exists concerning the advisability of treating cachexia or age-associated muscle wasting with IGF-I. Administration of IL-15 or modulation of the IL-15 signaling pathway may represent an alternative strategy for maintaining skeletal muscle mass under these conditions.
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Interleukin-15 antagonizes muscle protein waste in tumour-bearing rats.
Carbo N, Lopez-Soriano J, Costelli P, Busquets S, Alvarez B, Baccino FM, Quinn LS, Lopez-Soriano FJ, Argiles JM.
Department de Bioquimica i Biologia Molecular, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.
Tissue protein hypercatabolism (TPH) is an important feature in cancer cachexia, particularly with regard to the skeletal muscle. The Yoshida AH-130 rat ascites hepatoma is a model system for studying the mechanisms involved in the processes that lead to tissue depletion, since it induces in the host a rapid and progressive muscle wasting, primarily due to TPH. The present study was aimed at investigating if IL-15, which is known to favour muscle fibre hypertrophy, could antagonize the enhanced muscle protein breakdown in this cancer cachexia model. Indeed, IL-15 treatment partly inhibited skeletal muscle wasting in AH-130-bearing rats by decreasing (8-fold) protein degradative rates (as measured by 14C-bicarbonate pre-loading of muscle proteins) to values even lower than those observed in non-tumour-bearing animals. These alterations in protein breakdown rates were associated with an inhibition of the ATP-ubiquitin-dependent proteolytic pathway (35% and 41% for 2.4 and 1.2 kb ubiquitin mRNA, and 57% for the C8 proteasome subunit, respectively). The cytokine did not modify the plasma levels of corticosterone and insulin in the tumour hosts. The present data give new insights into the mechanisms by which IL-15 exerts its preventive effect on muscle protein wasting and seem to warrant the implementation of experimental protocols involving the use of the cytokine in the treatment of pathological states characterized by TPH, particularly in skeletal muscle, such as in the present model of cancer cachexia.
hmmm .....brain function aid.
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Interleukin-15, a T-cell growth factor, is expressed in human neural cell lines and tissues.
Satoh J, Kurohara K, Yukitake M, Kuroda Y.
Department of Internal Medicine, Saga Medical School, Nabeshima, Japan.
Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is a novel cytokine which shares activities and receptor components with IL-2. To investigate the biological roles of IL-15 in the human nervous system, we examined the expression of mRNAs for IL-15 and the IL-15 receptor three subunits (IL-15alpha, IL-2Rbeta and IL-2Rgamma) in human neural cell lines and tissues using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Southern blot analysis. The constitutive expression of high levels of IL-15 mRNA was observed in all the cell lines examined, including Y79 retinoblastoma, IMR-32 neuroblastoma, SK-N-SH neuroblastoma, U-373MG glioma, KG-1-C glioma, NTera2 teratocarcinoma and neurons derived from NTera2 cells following treatment with retinoic acid (RA). Among these cell lines, IL-15 protein was detectable at high levels in culture supernatants of SK-N-SH cells and NTera2-derived neurons. The expression of an alternatively-spliced transcript of the IL-15 gene was up-regulated in NTera2 cells during RA-induced neuronal differentiation, suggesting the existence of differentiation-dependent transcriptional regulation. The expression of IL-15 mRNA was also identified in the human cerebral and cerebellar tissues, peripheral nerve and skeletal muscle, while the mRNAs for the complete set of IL-15R components were detectable only in U-373MG cells, cerebral and cerebellar tissues at significant levels. These results indicate that the expression of IL-15 but not of IL-15R mRNA is universal in human neural cell lines and tissues and raise the possibility that IL-15 acts as a neuroimmune regulatory factor in the human central nervous system.
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Interleukin-15 stimulates C2 skeletal myoblast differentiation.
Quinn LS, Haugk KL, Damon SE.
Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center, VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Tacoma, Washington 98493, USA.
Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is a cytokine which is highly expressed in skeletal muscle, and which stimulates muscle protein accretion in cultured skeletal muscle fibers. Using parental C2 skeletal myoblasts, no significant effects of IL-15 on skeletal muscle differentiation were observed. To test the hypothesis that IL-15 may stimulate skeletal muscle differentiation if the strong differentiation-inducing effects of autocrine insulin-like growth factor (IGF) production were inhibited, a C2 myoblast subline (C2-pBP4) was stably transfected with an expression vector for rat IGF binding protein-4 (IGFBP-4). Differentiation responses to autocrine and exogenous IGFs in C2-BP4 myoblasts were reduced 3- to 4-fold in C2-BP4 cultures compared to C2-pLXSN cultures, a subline transfected with a control plasmid. Addition of IL-15 to C2-pBP4 myoblasts doubled the number of differentiated muscle cells which arose. These findings indicate that IL-15 can stimulate myogenic differentiation in conditions in which the strongly differentiative effects of the IGFs are inhibited. The differentiative activity of IL-15 may be of physiological significance in conditions in which IGF concentrations are low or in which the IGFs are sequestered by binding proteins.
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