Rheumatoid

Rheumatoid

Tadamitsu Kishimoto – IL-6

In the early 1970th, Dr. Kishimoto discovered the activity inducing antibody production in culture supernatants of T cells. Furthermore, he demonstrated that the activity for inducing IgG and IgE antibodies could be separated.

In the early 1970th, Dr. Kishimoto discovered the activity inducing antibody production in culture supernatants of T cells. Furthermore, he demonstrated that the activity for inducing IgG and IgE antibodies could be separated. Later, this finding led to the discovery of the dichotomy of helper T cells, Th1 and Th2.

On the basis of these early studies, Dr. Kishimoto discovered and cloned interleukin-6 and its receptor and delineated the signaling pathway used by IL-6 and the set of related cytokines that utilize gp-130, which he also discovered. He identified the transcription factors NF-IL-6 and STAT3, both central to the action of IL-6. He further discovered a family of suppressors of cytokine signaling, the SOCS molecules, that are key regulators of cytokine function.

He demonstrated the involvement of IL-6 in the pathogenesis of cardiac myxomas, multiple myeloma, Castleman’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). He identified IL-6 as a hepatocyte stimulating factor which induces acute phase reactions.

He prepared an monoclonal anti-IL-6 receptor antibody that was subsequently humanized and has been shown to be of great therapeutic value in a series of autoinflammatory diseases including Castleman's Disease, rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

His work has dominated the field of proinflammatory cytokines and has established paradigms for the study of all of cytokine biology, ranging from discovery of the cytokine and its receptor, through signaling and transcriptional mechanisms, to the utilization of such knowledge to develop highly effective therapeutics.

A series of his IL-6 studies for 35 years since 1973 have been highly appreciated; He was ranked as the world’s 8th-most-cited researchers between 1983 and 2002 and he is in the top ten of h-index of living biologists.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Tadamitsu Kishimoto, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki