IL-3

Interleukin-3 (IL-3) is an interleukin, a type of biological signal (cytokine) which is encoded by the IL-3 gene located on chromosome 5 and produced primarily by activated T cells beside human thymic epithelial cells, activated murine mast cells, murine keratinocytes and neurons/astrocytes. The protein acts in hematopoiesis by controlling the production, differentiation, and function of 2 related white cell populations of the blood, the granulocytes and the monocytes-macrophages. The human IL-3 reported to be a monomer, as it is known, contains 133 amino acids residues which is a single non-glycosylated polypeptide. Specifically, human and murine IL-3 share low homology and it does not show activity on murine cells.