Texas Christian University Logo - TCU

Interleukin 7 (IL-7)

Can be measured in:

Interleukin 7 (IL-7) is a pleiotropic protein that stimulates lymphocyte maturation and proliferation. It is involved in several additional facets of immunity, including cell to cell communication and regulation of the humoral immune response. IL-7 has been implicated in a number of different disorders, such as multiple sclerosis and cancer. This analyte is eligible for multiplexing.

You will be asked to indicate sample size once you have added all desired analytes to the cart.

Name: Interleukin 7 (IL-7)
Category: Health & Inflammation
Type of test: Blood + Saliva 

Interleukin-7 (IL-7) is a cytokine that acts as a hematopoietic growth factor and plays an important role in lymphocyte production and survival. IL-7 also has important thymopoietic functions and is produced in large quantities by thymic epithelial cells. IL-7 is also produced by a number of other cells, including keratinocytes, dendritic cells, liver cells, and even neurons. In addition to acting as a growth factor, IL-7 also regulates humoral immune responses, with mice overexpression IL-7 mounting more robust and lasting antibody responses to rabies vaccination than wild type mice. 

IL-7 plays a role in the etiology of several diseases, including blood cancers and cardiovascular disease. Despite its role in these disorders, IL-7 nonetheless has important clinical applications as an immunotherapy. For example, administering IL-7 alongside antiretroviral drugs appears to improve outcomes for individuals with HIV. Further, IL-7 may be beneficial for facilitating immune recovery after stem cell transplants. 

More recently, IL-7 has been explored as an immunotherapy in the context of severe COVID-19.  Preliminary data suggest that it may have some utility as a treatment in this context. IL-7 can be measured in both saliva and serum / plasma, but the extent to which levels in these sample types correlate is variable.

Fry, T. J., & Mackall, C. L. (2002). Interleukin-7: from bench to clinic. Blood, The Journal of the American Society of Hematology99, 3892-3904. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12010786/

Goodwin, R. G., Lupton, S., Schmierer, A., Hjerrild, K. J., Jerzy, R., Clevenger, W., ... & Namen, A. E. (1989). Human interleukin 7: molecular cloning and growth factor activity on human and murine B-lineage cells. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences86, 302-306. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC286452/

Laterre, P. F., François, B., Collienne, C., Hantson, P., Jeannet, R., Remy, K. E., & Hotchkiss, R. S. (2020). Association of interleukin 7 immunotherapy with lymphocyte counts among patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). JAMA network open3, e2016485-e2016485. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7376391/

Li, Y., Zhou, M., Luo, Z., Zhang, Y., Cui, M., Chen, H., ... & Zhao, L. (2017). Overexpression of interleukin-7 extends the humoral immune response induced by rabies vaccination. Journal of virology91, e02324-16. https://jvi.asm.org/content/91/7/e02324-16/article-info

Skip to content