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Query: UMLS:C0153470 (Spleen)
 4,015 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Six adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were flown on the 7-day US space shuttle mission STS-54. After flight, the spleen and thymus from each animal were assayed for the capacity to secrete the cytokines interleukin-3 (IL-3) and IL-6. Spleen and thymus cells (5 x 10(6)/ml) were incubated for 48 h in the presence of 5 micrograms/ml of concanavalin A or 2 micrograms/ml of bacterial lipopolysaccharide to stimulate the production of IL-3 and IL-6. IL-3 activity was measured using the IL-3/colony-stimulating-factor-dependent cell line 32D. IL-6 activity was measured using the IL-6-dependent cell line 7TD1. Spleen and thymus cells harvested from flown rats secreted significantly higher titers of biologically active IL-3 compared with ground control rats. Spaceflight significantly enhanced IL-6 production by thymus, but not spleen, cells. The results of this study demonstrate that spaceflight can enhance the production of certain cytokines by cells of the immune system.
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PMID:Influence of spaceflight on the production of interleukin-3 and interleukin-6 by rat spleen and thymus cells. 777 23