The TIPE (TNFAIP8) family in inflammation, immunity, and cancer

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha-induced protein 8 (TNFAIP8 or TIPE) family are recently identified proteins which are important for maintaining immune homeostasis. The mammalian TNFAIP8 family consists of four members: TNFAIP8, the first identified member of this family, TNFAIP8L1 (TNF-alpha-induced protein 8-like 1, TIPE1), TIPE2, and TIPE3, which share high degrees of sequence homology and involve in proliferation, inflammation, and cell death. Among the members, TNFAIP8 is considered to be associated with carcinogenesis, TIPE2 is an essential negative regulator of both innate and adaptive immunity and the depletion of TIPE2 would cause serve inflammatory disease. Whereas, little is known about TIPE1 and TIPE3.