| Summary: | 碩士 === 國防醫學院 === 生物及解剖學研究所 === 94 === Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is a cytokine that can stimulate cytotoxic T-cell proliferation and induce nature killer cell maturation. IL-15 binds to interleukin-15 receptor (IL-15R), then triggers downstream signal transduction to regulate specific gene transcription. Current studies indicated that IL-15 and IL-15Rα were both expressed in human fetal brain, and secreted by astrocytes and microglia. However, the role of IL-15R and the effects of IL-15 on neural stem cells were still not demonstrated. In this study, we identified the distribution of IL-15R, and investigated the effects of IL-15 on the differentiation of neural stem cells. We used neurospheres dissected from cerebral cortex of postnatal Wistar rats to identify the distribution and expression pattern of IL-15R, then observed specific protein expression and morphogenesis after IL-15 treatment. Our results indicated that IL-15R was expressed on neurons, but not on neural stem cells, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes; and IL-15R was expressed continuously on the differentiation of neural stem cells. MAP 2 expression was decreased after IL-15 treatment, but not the β-III tubulin; and neuritogenesis was inhibited by IL-15. Therefore, this study demonstrated that IL-15 might play a non-immune role to affect neuronal development during the differentiation of neural stem cells.
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