Interleukin 21

Interleukin 21

Identifiers Symbols IL21; IL-21; Za11 External IDs OMIM: 605384 MGI: 1890474 HomoloGene: 11032 GeneCards: IL21 Gene

Gene Ontology
Molecular function	• cytokine activity • cytokine receptor binding • interleukin-2 receptor binding
Cellular component	• extracellular space
Biological process	• positive regulation of natural killer cell cytokine production • immune response • signal transduction • positive regulation of cell proliferation • positive regulation of B cell proliferation • positive regulation of interleukin-10 production • positive regulation of interleukin-17 production • positive regulation of natural killer cell differentiation • positive regulation of tissue remodeling • positive regulation of T cell proliferation • positive regulation of tyrosine phosphorylation of Stat1 protein • positive regulation of tyrosine phosphorylation of Stat3 protein • positive regulation of interferon-gamma biosynthetic process • positive regulation of natural killer cell mediated cytotoxicity • cell maturation • positive regulation of inflammatory response
Sources: Amigo / QuickGO

RNA expression pattern More reference expression data Orthologs Species Human Mouse Entrez 59067 60505 Ensembl ENSG00000138684 ENSMUSG00000027718 UniProt Q9HBE4 Q9ES17 RefSeq (mRNA) NM_001207006.2 NM_021782.2 RefSeq (protein) NP_001193935.1 NP_068554.1 Location (UCSC) Chr 4:
123.53 – 123.54 Mb Chr 3:
37.22 – 37.23 Mb PubMed search

Interleukin-21 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the IL21 gene.

Interleukin 21 is a cytokine that has potent regulatory effects on cells of the immune system, including natural killer (NK) cells and cytotoxic T cells that can destroy virally infected or cancerous cells. This cytokine induces cell division/proliferation in its target cells.