Elsevier

Mucosal Immunology

Volume 8, Issue 3, May 2015, Pages 672-682
Mucosal Immunology

Article
Conditional IL-4/IL-13-deficient mice reveal a critical role of innate immune cells for protective immunity against gastrointestinal helminths

https://doi.org/10.1038/mi.2014.101Get rights and content
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Abstract

Approximately one-third of the world population is infected with gastrointestinal helminths. Studies in mouse models have demonstrated that the cytokines interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-13 are essential for worm expulsion, but the critical cellular source of these cytokines is poorly defined. Here, we compared the immune response to Nippostrongylus brasiliensis in wild-type, T cell-specific IL-4/IL-13-deficient and general IL-4/IL-13-deficient mice. We show that T cell-derived IL-4/IL-13 promoted T helper 2 (Th2) polarization in a paracrine manner, differentiation of alternatively activated macrophages, and tissue recruitment of innate effector cells. However, innate IL-4/IL-13 played the critical role for induction of goblet cell hyperplasia and secretion of effector molecules like Mucin5ac and RELMβ in the small intestine. Surprisingly, T cell-specific IL-4/IL-13-deficient and wild-type mice cleared the parasite with comparable efficiency, whereas IL-4/IL-13-deficient mice showed impaired expulsion. These findings demonstrate that IL-4/IL-13 produced by cells of the innate immune system is required and sufficient to initiate effective type 2 immune responses resulting in protective immunity against N. brasiliensis.

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Published online: 22 October 2014

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL is linked to the online version of the paper

Supplementary information The online version of this article (doi:10.1038/mi.2014.101) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.