The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Identification of alpha 2-macroglobulin as a carrier protein for IL-6.
Abstract
In this report we demonstrate that alpha 2-macroglobulin (alpha 2M) is a carrier protein for IL-6. IL-6 was found to bind plasma proteins and an immunoblot analysis revealed that the complex between IL-6 and plasma proteins contains alpha 2M. Furthermore, purified alpha 2M bound IL-6. alpha 2M did not inhibit IL-6 activity or its binding to homologous receptor. IL-6 bound to alpha 2M retained its biologic activity and became resistant to treatment with proteases, although free IL-6 was easily degraded. These findings indicate that alpha 2M plays an important role as a carrier protein for IL-6 in serum and makes IL-6 produced at the local inflammatory site available to lymphocytes, hepatocytes, and hematopoietic stem cells, resulting in the induction of the coordinate systemic host defense reactions, such as immune response, acute phase reaction, and hematopoiesis.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cited by
Interleukin-6 and the acute phase response
Heinrich, P. C., Castell, J. V., & Andus, T. (1990) · Biochemical Journal · doi:10.1042/bj2650621 · Cited by 2,734
Schindler, R., Mancilla, J., Endres, S., Ghorbani, R., Clark, S., & Dinarello, C. (1990) · Blood · doi:10.1182/blood.v75.1.40.40 · Cited by 1,012
Cytokine-mediated inflammation in acute lung injury
Goodman, R. B., Pugin, J., Lee, J. S., & Matthay, M. A. (2003) · Cytokine & Growth Factor Reviews · doi:10.1016/s1359-6101(03)00059-5 · Cited by 688
α-Macroglobulins: structure, shape, and mechanism of proteinase complex formation
Sottrup-Jensen, L. (1989) · Journal of Biological Chemistry · doi:10.1016/s0021-9258(18)80094-1 · Cited by 673
ELISA and Multiplex Technologies for Cytokine Measurement in Inflammation and Aging Research
Leng, S. X., McElhaney, J. E., Walston, J. D., Xie, D., Fedarko, N. S., & Kuchel, G. A. (2008) · The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences · doi:10.1093/gerona/63.8.879 · Cited by 516
Metadata
- Authors
- Matsuda, T., Hirano, T., Nagasawa, S., & Kishimoto, T.
- Venue
- The Journal of Immunology
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1989-01-01
- Volume
- 142
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 148-152
- ISSN
- 0022-1767 (ISSN-L)
- 1550-6606
- OpenAlex
- W2158034263
- Cited by
- 212
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 10.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Identification of alpha 2-macroglobulin as a carrier protein for IL-6. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.4049/jimmunol.142.1.148
- The paper
- Matsuda, T., Hirano, T., Nagasawa, S., & Kishimoto, T. (1989). Identification of alpha 2-macroglobulin as a carrier protein for IL-6. The Journal of Immunology. https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.142.1.148
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
