Article abstract


Nature Immunology 10, 1178 - 1184 (2009)
Published online: 27 September 2009 | doi:10.1038/ni.1791

Interleukin 10 acts on regulatory T cells to maintain expression of the transcription factor Foxp3 and suppressive function in mice with colitis

Masako Murai1, Olga Turovskaya1, Gisen Kim1, Rajat Madan2, Christopher L Karp2, Hilde Cheroutre1 & Mitchell Kronenberg1


Regulatory T cells (Treg cells) that express the transcription factor Foxp3 suppress the activity of other cells. Here we show that interleukin 10 (IL-10) produced by CD11b+ myeloid cells in recombination-activating gene 1–deficient (Rag1-/-) recipient mice was needed to prevent the colitis induced by transferred CD4+CD45RBhi T cells. In Il10-/-Rag1-/- mice, Treg cells failed to maintain Foxp3 expression and regulatory activity. The loss of Foxp3 expression occurred only in recipients with colitis, which indicates that the requirement for IL-10 is manifested in the presence of inflammation. IL-10 receptor–deficient (Il10rb-/-) Treg cells also failed to maintain Foxp3 expression, which suggested that host IL-10 acted directly on the Treg cells. Our data indicate that IL-10 released from myeloid cells acts in a paracrine manner on Treg cells to maintain Foxp3 expression.

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  1. Division of Developmental Immunology, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, La Jolla, California, USA.
  2. Division of Molecular Immunology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Correspondence to: Mitchell Kronenberg1 e-mail: mitch@liai.org.



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