摘要
[ Objective] To clone the porcine interleukin-18（/L-18） cDNA and explore the immunological effectiveness of porcine IL-18 as an adjuvant of genetic vaccine. [ Method] The spleen lymphccytes were isolated from Henan three-way cross-breeding pigs. According to the porcine IL-18 gene in GenBank, a pair of specific primers was designed. The full length cDNA of porcine IL-18 was amplified by RT-PCR. Subsequently, porcine IL-18 cDNA was cloned into pGEM-T vector and sequenced and analyzed. [ Result] The porcine IL-18 gene demonstrated an open reading frame of 579 bp encoding an inactive precursor protein with 192 amino acids. The precursor protein had no typical hydrophobic signal peptide and cleaved by interleukin-1 beta （IL-1β） converting enzyme（ICE） in caspase-1 splice site; the porcine mature protein had biological activity： After comparing with other porcine IL-18 genes, the nucleotide sequence homology was over 96% and the deduced amino acid homology was more than 98%. [ Conclusion] A full length procine IL-18 gene was gained. It lays the foundation for porcine IL-18 as an adjuvant of genetic vaccine.
白细胞介素-18（IL-18）又称γ干扰素诱导因子（IGIF），研究表明IL-18是一种重要的新型免疫佐剂分子。为探讨猪IL-18的免疫佐剂作用，该研究根据已发表的猪IL-18基因序列，设计并合成1对特异性引物，从猪脾脏中直接扩增得到猪IL-18全基因，并进行克隆和序列测定、分析。
基金
Supported by Project of Basic and Frontier Technology Research in Henan Province(072300430060 )
Key Scientific and Technological Project of Henan Province(072102130023)~~
