Cytokine redundancy is a term in

immunology Immunology is a branch of biology and medicine that covers the study of Immune system, immune systems in all Organism, organisms. Immunology charts, measures, and contextualizes the Physiology, physiological functioning of the immune system in ...

referring to the phenomenon in which, and the ability of, multiple

cytokine Cytokines () are a broad and loose category of small proteins (~5–25 kDa) important in cell signaling. Cytokines are produced by a broad range of cells, including immune cells like macrophages, B cell, B lymphocytes, T cell, T lymphocytes ...

s to exert similar actions. This phenomenon is largely due to multiple cytokines utilizing common

receptor Receptor may refer to: * Sensory receptor, in physiology, any neurite structure that, on receiving environmental stimuli, produces an informative nerve impulse *Receptor (biochemistry), in biochemistry, a protein molecule that receives and respond ...

subunits and common intracellular

cell signalling In biology, cell signaling (cell signalling in British English) is the process by which a cell interacts with itself, other cells, and the environment. Cell signaling is a fundamental property of all cellular life in both prokaryotes and eukary ...

molecules A molecule is a group of two or more atoms that are held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions that satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry ...

/ pathways. For instance, a pair of redundant cytokines are

interleukin 4 The interleukin 4 (IL4, IL-4) is a cytokine that induces differentiation of naive helper T cells ( Th0 cells) to Th2 cells. Upon activation by IL-4, Th2 cells subsequently produce additional IL-4 in a positive feedback loop. IL-4 ...

and

interleukin 13 Interleukin 13 (IL-13) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''IL13'' gene. IL-13 was first cloned in 1993 and is located on chromosome 5q31.1 with a length of 1.4kb. It has a mass of 13 kDa and folds into 4 alpha helical bundles. The sec ...

. Cytokine redundancy is associated with the term ''cytokine

pleiotropy Pleiotropy () is a condition in which a single gene or genetic variant influences multiple phenotypic traits. A gene that has such multiple effects is referred to as a ''pleiotropic gene''. Mutations in pleiotropic genes can impact several trait ...

'', which refers to the ability of cytokines to exert multiple actions.

References

Immunology {{immunology-stub