The membrane distal half of gp130 is responsible for the formation of a ternary complex with IL-6 and the IL-6 receptor

• Published in: FEBS letters Vol. 360; no. 1; pp. 43 - 46
• Main Authors: Horsten, Ursula, Schmitz-Van de Leur, Hildegard, Müllberg, Jürgen, Heinrich, Peter C., Rose-John, Stefan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier B.V 20.02.1995
• Subjects: Animals; Antigens, CD; Base Sequence; Cell Line; CNTF, ciliary neurotrophic factor; Cytokine receptor domain; Cytokine Receptor gp130; GM-CSF, granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor; gp130; gp130, glycoprotein 130; Haplorhini; IgG, immunoglobulin G; IL, interleukin; Interleukin-6; Interleukin-6 - metabolism; LIF, leukemia inhibitory factor; Membrane Glycoproteins - genetics; Membrane Glycoproteins - physiology; Molecular Sequence Data; Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; OM, oncostatin M; Protein Binding; Receptors, Interleukin - metabolism; Receptors, Interleukin-6; Signal Transduction; Structure-function analysis; gp130, glycoprotein 130; IgG, immunoglobulin G; GM-CSF, granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor; Structure-function analysis; IL, interleukin; OM, oncostatin M; LIF, leukemia inhibitory factor; gp130; CNTF, ciliary neurotrophic factor; Cytokine receptor domain; Interleukin-6
• ISSN: 0014-5793; 1873-3468
• DOI: 10.1016/0014-5793(95)00053-C

Gp130 is the signal transducing subunit of the interleukin-6 receptor. Signaling is initiated by the complex formation of gp130 with IL-6 bound to the IL-6 receptor (IL-6R). We have subdivided the extracellular domain of gp130 in two parts and expressed the mutant proteins as soluble IgG fusion proteins in COS-7 cells. By studying the formation of the ternary complex we show that the membrane distal half of gp130 which contains a cytokine receptor domain is responsible for the interaction with the IL-6/IL-6R complex. Interestingly this is the same region which is believed to be involved in specific recognition of the related cytokines LIF, OM, and probably also of CNTF and IL-11.