Analysis of cytokine receptor function by gene manipulation

As a tool to investigate physiological and pathological roles of cytokines, gene manipulation techniques have been applied to make mouse models having mutations in cytokine receptor genes. Functional pleiotropy and redundancy are two major characteristic features of cytokines. The latter feature is in part explained by the shared usage of a signal-transducing receptor component by several cytokine receptor complexes. In this article, studies with the help of gene manipulation techniques on a group of cytokine receptor complexes sharing the signal transducer, gp130, are reviewed. To investigate the in vivo roles of gp130, mice deficient for gp130 or having constitutively activated gp130 were made. Transgenic mice expressing a dominant-negative form of gp130 were produced as well. Observation from these mouse models and that from mice deficient for other gp130-related receptors and ligans are also reviewed in this article.