Interleukin Enhancer Binding Factor 3 (ILF3)

Nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFAT) is a transcription factor required for T-cell expression of interleukin 2. NFAT binds to a sequence in the IL2 enhancer known as the antigen receptor response element 2. In addition, NFAT can bind RNA and is an essential component for encapsidation and protein priming of hepatitis B viral polymerase. NFAT is a heterodimer of 45 kDa and 90 kDa proteins, the larger of which is the product of this gene. The encoded protein, which is primarily localized to ribosomes, probably regulates transcription at the level of mRNA elongation. At least three transcript variants encoding three different isoforms have been found for this gene.Viranaicken et al. (2006) identified an additional alternatively spliced exon within intron 2 of the mouse and human ILF3 genes, increasing the total number of exons to 22.