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Published on: February 28, 2019
The two-chain structure of high-affinity IL-2 receptors
1Department of Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire 03756, USA.
Abstract:
Binding studies with radiolabeled interleukin 2 (IL-2) have suggested that T cells possess two classes of IL-2 binding site with different affinities but a shared epitope named Tac. The gene for a 55kDa Tac-positive protein has been cloned but on transfection induced only the expression of low-affinity IL-2 binding sites. The structure of the receptor has therefore been perplexing. Here Kendall Smith discusses recent studies which disclose the existence of a new Tac-negative 75kDa IL-2 binding protein and he suggests that a high affinity IL-2 receptor consists of an α(p75) chain non-covalently linked to a β(p55) chain.
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