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Recently discovered type III IFNs (IFN-λ) exert their antiviral and immunomodulatory activities through a unique receptor complex composed of IFN-λR1 and interleukin-10 receptor 2. To further study type III IFNs, we cloned and characterized mouse IFN-λ ligand-receptor system. We showed that, similar to their human orthologues, mIFN-λ2 and mIFN-λ3 signal through the IFN-λ receptor complex, activate IFN stimulated gene factor 3, and are capable of inducing antiviral protection and MHC class I antigen expression in several cell types including B16 melanoma cells. We then used the murine B16 melanoma model to investigate the potential antitumor activities of IFN-λs. We developed B16 cells constitutively expressing murine IFN-λ2 (B16.IFN-λ2 cells) and evaluated their tumorigenicity in syngeneic C57BL/6 mice. Although constitutive expression of mIFN-λ2 in melanoma cells did not affect their proliferation in …