[7][8] It also has many more specific effects like the regeneration of platelets and potentially aids in early antibody isotype switching.

[10] In conjunction with other β common chain cytokines GM-CSF and IL-5, IL-3 works to regulate the inflammatory response in order to clear pathogens by changing the abundance of various cell populations via binding at the interleukin-3 receptor.

[9]  IL-3 is capable of stimulating differentiation of immature myelomonocytic cells causing changes to the macrophage and granulocyte populations.

[8] IL-3 signaling is able to give rise to widest array of cell lineages which is why it has been independently named “multi-CSF” in some older literature.

[10] IL-3 also induces various effector functions in both immature and mature cells that more precisely modulate the body’s defense against microbial pathogens.

The human IL-3 gene encodes a protein 152 amino acids long, and the naturally occurring IL-3 is glycosylated.

The cytokine was originally discovered via the observation that it induced the synthesis of 20alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase in hematopoietic cells and termed it interleukin-3 (IL-3).

However, only IL-3 treatment in bone marrow failure disorders such as myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and aplastic anemia (AA) was disappointing.