Production of interleukin-7 and interleukin-15 by fibroblast-like synoviocytes from patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

These results indicated that fibroblast-like synoviocytes are an important source of the cytokines with IL-2-like activity, IL-15 and IL-7, in RA joints, and that IL-15 may be mainly responsible for local T cell activation and expansion in the presence of deficient IL-2 production by T cells.