Minimal tumor necrosis factor receptor binding protein: optimum biological activity of a truncated p55 soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor-IgG fusion protein.

INTRODUCTION The pleiotropic cytokine, tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), produced primarily by activated macrophages, is intimately involved in many immune and inflammatory responses including septic shock, cachexia, and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) [1-5]. TNF interacts with two high affinity cell surface receptors, which also bind the structurally related cytokine, lymphotoxin (LT) [6]. Two human soluble TNF binding [...]