Expression of two interleukin 4 mRNA isoforms in B lymphoid cells.

Expression of an alternative spliced IL4 mRNA was found in in vitro activated T cells. In this study we show that the expression of IL4 mRNA, as well as the expression of this alternatively spliced form of IL4 mRNA, is not restricted to these cells. We analyzed different human lymphoid tissues and cell lines of different origin and found that the alternatively spliced IL4 transcripts are also expressed in human lymphoid tissues, in purified B cells, in the various B cell-derived cell lines, and even in nonlymphoid cell lines.

An improved, sensitive, non-radioactive in situ hybridization method for the detection of cytokine mRNAs.

We established an improved non-radioactive in situ hybridization (ISH) method to detect mRNA of cytokines in cell preparations and tissues. Via this method we could demonstrate various cytokines in stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), lymphoid cell lines and human lymphoid tissues. The probes for the in situ hybridization were made by labelling cytokine-specific PCR products with digoxigenin (Dig) in a repeated PCR.