Interleukins are a group of cytokines that were originally identified in white blood cells (leukocytes). It is now known that interleukins are expressed in a wide variety of cells, and are involved in multiple cell signaling pathways. Interleukin 6 (IL-6) is involved in a wide variety of biological functions, including the inflammatory response and the maturation of B cells. IL-6 acts on B cells, T cells, hepatocytes, hematopoietic progenitor cells, and cells of the central nervous system (CNS). IL-6 is expressed at sites of acute and chronic inflammation, where it is secreted into the serum and binds the IL-6 receptor alpha. In humans, the IL-6 gene has been implicated in many inflammation-associated disease states, including diabetes mellitus and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. IL-6 is also known as interferon beta-2 (IFNB2), B-cell stimulatory factor-2 (BSF-2), CTL differentiation factor (CDF), B-cell stimulatory factor 2 (BSF2), B-cell differentiation factor, and hybridoma growth factor (HGF).
This kit is a solid-phase sandwich ELISA using two antibodies that are highly specific to the native form of rat IL-6; one is precoated on the ELISA plate and the other is HRP-conjugated. This assay kit can be used to measure soluble native rat IL-6 protein in EDTA plasma or cell culture supernatants.
