IL-6 调节Treg 和Th17 细胞的平衡.pdfVIP

1830 Akihiro Kimura and Tadamitsu Kishimoto DOI 10.1002/eji.201040391 Eur. J. Immunol. 2010. 40: 1830–1835 R e v i e w IL-6: Regulator of Treg/Th17 balance S Akihiro Kimura and Tadamitsu Kishimoto e r Laboratory of Immune Regulation, Osaka University Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, i e Osaka, Japan s IL-6 is a pleiotropic cytokine involved in the physiology of virtually every organ system. 1 Recent studies have demonstrated that IL-6 has a very important role in regulating the 4 balance between IL-17-producing Th17 cells and regulatory T cells (Treg). The two T-cell t subsets play prominent roles in immune functions: Th17 cell is a key player in the h pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases and protection against bacterial infections, while Treg functions to restrain excessive effector T-cell responses. IL-6 induces the develop- I C ment of Th17 cells from naı¨ve T cells together with TGF- b; in contrast, IL-6 inhibits TGF-b- induced Treg differentiation. Dysregulation or overproduction of IL-6 leads to autoimmune I diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), in which Th17 cells are considered to be the primary cause of pathology. Given the critical role of IL-6 in altering the balance between Treg and Th17 cells, controlling IL-6 activities is potentially an effective approach in the treatment of various autoimmune and inflammatory disea- ses. Here, we review the role of IL-6 in regulating Th17/Treg balance and describe the critical functions of IL-6 and Th17 in immunity and immune-pathology. Key words: Autoimmunity . IL-6 . Th17 . Treg