Summary
Although early studies suggested that IL-4 and IL-13 would have redundant functions, it is becoming clear that even though their biologic activities may overlap, these cytokines perform more specific roles in vivo. It is apparent that in some circumstances IL-4 and IL-13 act in conjunction to ensure the rapid onset of a Th2-like response and that in their combined absence the vestiges of the Th2 response are abolished or significantly delayed. However, it is also evident that these cytokines can specifically modify individual immunologic functions depending on the nature of the antigenic challenge. For example, in the context of schistosome infection, IL-4 is beneficial, whereas IL-13 is detrimental, and IL-13 plays a more dominant role than IL-4 in the expulsion of certain worm infections. Furthermore, in asthma models, IL-13, rather than IL-4, has been shown to play a key role in the generation of AHR. The roles of IL-4 and IL-13 have obvious implications for the development of therapeutic strategies for cytokine/anti-cytokine modulation of immune reactions. The use of conventional transgenic mice and gene knockout mice has already provided important functional information regarding these molecules. The future development of conditional and cell-specific gene ablation models should further extend our understanding of this system.
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Hewett, D.R., McKenzie, A.N.J. (2003). IL-13 and Double IL-4/IL-13 Knockout Mice. In: Fantuzzi, G. (eds) Cytokine Knockouts. Contemporary Immunology. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-405-4_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-405-4_16
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