It is possible that both forms activated similar pathways, as the mature IL-1α used by Mori et al. could have bound to IL-1R1 on ALL cells and signaled to increase the expression of NF-kB; while the propiece IL-1α used by Zhang et al. directly activated expression of NF-kB in the nucleus of ALL cells. The gene discussed is IL1R1; the disease is acute lymphoblastic leukemia.