Interleukin 21: a cytokine/cytokine receptor system that has come of age
Open accessAbstract
Interleukin-21 (IL-21) and its receptor represent the sixth cytokine system whose actions were recognized to require the common cytokine receptor gamma chain. IL-21 is produced by activated CD4+ T cells, natural killer T cells, and follicular T helper cells and has actions on a range of lymphohematopoietic lineages. Among its many effects, IL-21 serves a critical role for immunoglobulin production and terminal B cell differentiation, acts as a T cell comitogen and can drive the expansion of CD8+ T cells, can negatively regulate dendritic cell function and plays an essential role in the differentiation of Th17 cells. Importantly, IL-21 is implicated in the pathogenesis of autoimmunity and exhibits potent actions as an antitumor agent. The ability to regulate and manipulate the actions of IL-21, therefore, has important implications for immunoregulation and the therapy of human disease.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
STAT3 controls development of CXCR5-expressing T follicular helper cells, their localization to the B cell follicle within germinal centers, and their IL-21 secretion, which mediates B cell help by stimulating proliferation and antibody affinity maturation.
“STAT3 also controls development of CXC chemokine receptor 5–expressing T follicular helper cells, their localization to the B cell follicle within germinal centers of secondary lymphoid organs, and their IL-21 secretion, which mediates B cell help in germinal centers by stimulating proliferation and antibody affinity maturation”
From Targeting Janus Kinases and Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 To Treat Inflammation, Fibrosis, and Cancer: Rationale, Progress, and Caution (2020) · cites this paper as Leonard et al., 2008
Cites
IL-17 family cytokines and the expanding diversity of effector T cell lineages
Weaver, C. T., Hatton, R. D., Mangan, P. R., & Harrington, L. E. (2007) · Annual Review of Immunology · doi:10.1146/annurev.immunol.25.022106.141557 · Cited by 1,842 · see citing works
Bowman, T., Garcia, R., Turkson, J., & Jove, R. (2000) · Oncogene · doi:10.1038/sj.onc.1203527 · Cited by 1,743 · see citing works
Vinuesa, C. G., Cook, M. C., Angelucci, C., Athanasopoulos, V., Rui, L., Hill, K. M., Yu, D., Domaschenz, H., Whittle, B., Lambe, T., et al. (2005) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature03555 · Cited by 862 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Follicular Helper CD4 T Cells (T <sub>FH</sub> )
Crotty, S. (2011) · Annual Review of Immunology · doi:10.1146/annurev-immunol-031210-101400 · Cited by 2,738 · see citing works
Wang, Y.-H., Voo, K. S., Liu, B., Chen, C.-Y., Uygungil, B., Spoede, W., Bernstein, J. A., Huston, D. P., & Liu, Y.-J. (2010) · Journal of Experimental Medicine · doi:10.1084/jem.20101376 · Cited by 431 · see citing works
Bharadwaj, U., Kasembeli, M. M., Robinson, P., & Tweardy, D. J. (2020) · Pharmacological Reviews · doi:10.1124/pr.119.018440 · Cited by 314 · see citing works
“5–expressing T follicular helper cells, their localization to theB cell follicle within germinal centers of secondary lymphoid organs, and their IL-21 secretion, which mediates B cell help in germinal centers by stimulating proliferation and antibody affinity maturation (Leonard et al., 2008; Ding et al., 2013).”
Background
- Authors
- Leonard, W. J., Zeng, R., & Spolski, R.
- Affiliations
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Corresponding author
- Leonard, Warren J
- Venue
- Journal of Leukocyte Biology
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2008-05-08
- Volume
- 84
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 348-356
- ISSN
- 0741-5400 (ISSN-L)
- 1938-3673
- PMC
- PMC2493068
- OpenAlex
- W2128161623
- Cited by
- 122
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 1.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Leukocyte Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cytokine Signaling Pathways and Interactions
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › T-cell and B-cell Immunology
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Psoriasis: Treatment and Pathogenesis
- Keywords
- IL-21, IL-21 receptor, common gamma chain, CD4+ T cells, NKT cells, T follicular helper cells, antibody production, B cell terminal differentiation, T cell costimulation, CD8+ T cell proliferation, Th17 cell differentiation, autoimmunity, anticancer activity, immune regulation
- MeSH terms
- Interleukin-21, Amino Acid Sequence, Animals, Dendritic Cells, Epithelial Cells, Humans, Interleukins, Autoimmunity, Keratinocytes, Cytokines, Receptors, Cytokine, Th2 Cells, Receptors, Interleukin-21
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
