ABSTRACT
Interleukin-32 (IL-32)1 is a proinflammatory cytokine originally described as a transcript termed NK4 found in activated natural killer (NK) cells and T lymphocytes.2 Although IL-32 is expressed at low levels in health, in disease conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Crohn’s disease, and psoriasis, the expression increases markedly. IL-32 is a major transcript in gene array studies in epithelial cells stimulated with interferon (IFN)-g in vitro. In mycobacterial infections, pulmonary macrophages contain IL-32 but macrophages from healthy lung tissue do not.
