Interleukin-15 is an autocrine/paracrine viability factor for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma cells.

In this study we investigated the role of interleukin-15 (IL-15) in the immunobiology of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) cells. Using cell culture techniques, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and immunhistochemistry we found that IL-15, like IL-7, is a growth factor for the Sézary cell line SeAx and that both cytokines prolonged the survival of malignant T cells directly isolated from Sézary syndrome (SS) patients. Both IL-15 and IL-7 were more potent than IL-2. IL-4 and IL-9, whose receptors share the same gamma chain with the receptors of IL-2, IL-7, and IL-15, did not sustain the growth of CTCL cells, indicating that signaling through the common gamma chain (gammac) is not sufficient for continuous growth. IL-13 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) had no effect. IL-7 and IL-15 also supported the growth of SeAx cells in the presence of the apoptosis inducing agents dexamethasone and retinoic acid. The analysis of patient Sézary cells and three CTCL cell lines by RT-PCR showed that all these cells expressed IL-15 mRNA, but only a few (25%) produced IL-7 mRNA. Immunohistological analyses of skin biopsy samples of SS and Mycosis fungoides patients showed immunoreactivity for IL-15 in basal cell layer keratinocytes and in the infiltrating lymphocytes. We conclude that IL-15 is a growth or viability factor for CTCL-derived cell lines or shortly cultivated Sézary cells. The findings that IL-15 mRNA can be detected in Sézary syndrome peripheral blood mononuclear cells and that the IL-15 protein is detected in skin sections from CTCL patients suggest that IL-15 plays an important role in the biology of CTCL.