IL-18 deficiency selectively enhances allergen-induced eosinophilia in mice☆,☆☆,★
Section snippets
Animals
Specific pathogen-free male C57BL/6 mice 6 to 8 weeks old were purchased from Charles River Laboratories (Atsugi, Japan). Male homozygous IL-18–deficient mice of C57BL/6 lineage that had been produced and bred at the Institute for Advanced Medical Sciences, Hyogo College of Medicine (Nishinomiya, Japan),14 were studied at 6 to 10 weeks of age. A normal immune system develops in these mice, except that they display reduced production of IFN-γ, impaired NK-cell activity, and downregulated TH1
Antigen-induced pulmonary eosinophilia in IL-18–deficient mice
In actively immunized wild-type mice, inflammatory cells infiltrating lung tissues were increased dramatically after repeated exposure to OVA in comparison with mice exposed only to saline. Analysis of BALF cells also revealed marked elevation of the eosinophil population (37.8 ± 25.0 vs <0.1 × 105/mL) and slight increases in neutrophils (2.3 ± 0.8 vs <0.1 × 105/mL), lymphocytes (6.5 ± 1.6 vs 0.2 ± 0.1 × 105/mL), and macrophages (9.3 ± 4.8 vs 2.7 ± 0.8 × 105/mL). An increase in inflammatory
DISCUSSION
IL-18 originally was termed IFN-γ–inducing factor because it induces production of IFN-γ by T cells in vitro.13, 19 Recent reports have provided evidence that IL-18 shares its biologic functions with IL-12, which is known to have immunoregulatory activity, including induction of IFN-γ production,20 enhancement of NK-cell cytotoxicity,14, 21 and enhancement of activated T-cell proliferation. With respect to development of allergic inflammation, coadministration of IL-18 with IL-12 has been
Acknowledgements
We thank Ms Kyoko Obata and Ms Miho Fujisawa for assistance with the experiments and Dr Shigeru Miyata, Dr Shin-ichiro Kashiwamura, and Dr Haruyasu Ueda for helpful discussion.
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Cited by (0)
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Supported in part by grants from Hyogo College of Medicine Research and the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Japan.
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Reprint requests: Tomohiro Matsuyama, MD, PhD, Fifth Department of Internal Medicine, Hyogo College of Medicine, 1-1 Mukogawa-cho, Nishinomiya 663-8501, Japan.
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0091-6749/2000/$12.00 + 0 1/1/103415