Uromodulin: an immunoregulatory glycoprotein isolated from pregnancy urine that binds to and regulates the activity of interleukin 1.

Abstract

Uromodulin is an 85 kilodalton glycoprotein originally isolated from human pregnancy which has been shown to inhibit antigen specific T cell responses to recall antigens such as tetanus toxoid. We have also found that uromodulin is a high affinity ligand for interleukin 1 and is able to regulate the activity of interleukin 1 in vitro. Finally, we present data that free interleukin 2 receptor can be found in human pregnancy urine. We propose that a number of immunoregulatory phenomena associated with pregnancy are due to molecules able to specifically regulate interleukin 1 and interleukin 2.