Front. Immunol., 31 May 2013 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2013.00129

Regulation of adaptive immunity; the role of interleukin-10

T. H. Sky Ng, Graham J. Britton, Elaine V. Hill, Johan Verhagen, Bronwen R. Burton and David C. Wraith*

• School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

Since the discovery of interleukin-10 (IL-10) in the 1980s, a large body of work has led to its recognition as a pleiotropic immunomodulatory cytokine that affects both the innate and adaptive immune systems. IL-10 is produced by a wide range of cell types, but for the purposes of this review we shall focus on IL-10 secreted by CD4⁺ T cells. Here we describe the importance of IL-10 as a mediator of suppression used by both FoxP3⁺and FoxP3⁻ T regulatory cells. Moreover, we discuss the molecular events leading to the induction of IL-10 secretion in T helper cell subsets, where it acts as a pivotal negative feedback mechanism. Finally we discuss how a greater understanding of this principle has allowed for the design of more efficient, antigen-specific immunotherapy strategies to exploit this natural phenomenon clinically.

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Keywords: allergy, autoimmunity, cytokines, immune regulation, immunotherapy, interleukin-10, regulatory T cells, T helper cells

Citation: Ng THS, Britton GJ, Hill EV, Verhagen J, Burton BR and Wraith DC (2013) Regulation of adaptive immunity; the role of interleukin-10. Front. Immunol. 4:129. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2013.00129

Received: 01 May 2013; Paper pending published: 13 May 2013;
Accepted: 15 May 2013; Published online: 31 May 2013.

Edited by:

Eyad Elkord, United Arab Emirates University, UAE; University of Salford and University of Manchester, UK

Reviewed by:

Giovanna Lombardi, Kings College London, UK
Bin Li, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Copyright: © 2013 Ng, Britton, Hill, Verhagen, Burton and Wraith. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc.

*Correspondence: David C. Wraith, School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Medical Sciences Building, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TD, UK e-mail: d.c.wraith@bristol.ac.uk