La. Gravestein et al., THE TNF RECEPTOR FAMILY MEMBER CD27 SIGNALS TO JUN N-TERMINAL KINASE VIA TRAF-2, European Journal of Immunology, 28(7), 1998, pp. 2208-2216
CD27 is a lymphocyte-specific member of the TNF receptor (TNFR) family
. It is a costimulatory molecule for peripheral T cells, as defined by
its ability to enhance the TCR-induced proliferative response. We sho
w here that CD27 augments TCR-induced Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) acti
vity in primary murine lymph node T cells. To investigate how CD27 cou
ples to JNK, we performed a yeast two hybrid screen with the CD27 cyto
plasmic tail. This revealed that CD27 directly associates with Traf-2.
Transfection experiments using dominant negative Traf-2 indicated tha
t CD27 communicates with JNK via Traf-2. These findings group CD27 tog
ether with other members of the TNFR family, TNFR-1, -2, CD30 and CD40
, which have all been shown to couple to Traf proteins. Since Traf pro
teins have been reported to initiate an anti-apoptotic signaling pathw
ay, our data suggest that CD27 not only regulates proliferation, but a
lso survival of T lymphocytes.