Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 6, 2026

Generation of Orthotopic Pancreatic Tumors and Ex vivo Characterization of Tumor-Infiltrating T Cell Cytotoxicity
Published on: December 7, 2019
Making many from few: IL-12p40 as a model for the combinatorial assembly of heterodimeric cytokines
1Laboratory of Immunogenetics, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Twinbrook II 12441 Parklawn Dr., Rockville, MD 20852, United States.
Abstract:
How dendritic cells (DCs) gather information from the local milieu at a site of infection or injury and communicate this to influence adaptive immunity is not well understood. We and others have reported that soon after microbial encounter, DCs secrete the p40 subunit of IL-12, by itself, in a monomeric form. Based on recent data that this p40 monomer subsequently associates with p35 released from other cells to generate functional IL-12, we proposed that p40 can function as a DC-derived probe which samples the composition of the local milieu by looking for other binding partners. In this opinion, we discuss how such a sampling function might generate an elaborate combinatorial "code" of heterodimeric cytokines, capable of conveying location-specific information to cells downstream of DC activation, including NK and T cells.
Related Concept Videos
The JAK-STAT Signaling Pathway
Assembly of Signaling Complexes
Interaction domains in cell signaling
Interaction domains recognize exposed features of their binding partners containing post-translationally modified sequences,...
T Cell Activation and Clonal Selection
Naive T cells that have not yet encountered an antigen express two primary CD...
Protein Complex Assembly
Many viruses self-assemble into a fully functional unit using the infected host cell to...

