title: Ontogeny of IL4 production.
abstract: There is evidence to suggest that the production of some cytokines in childhood is different to that in adults. The production of IL4 in PHA-stimulated PBMC cultures was examined in healthy neonates, children and adults to determine the ontogeny of IL4 production throughout childhood. In vitro IL4 production was found to be significantly reduced in neonates and children under 10 years of age as compared to adults, and to increase progressively with age. The mechanisms leading to reduced IL4 production in neonates were shown to be different to those in children, with a defect in signal transduction demonstrated for lymphocytes from neonates but not children < 10 years. The presence of an inhibitory factor in cord blood plasma was also noted. These age-dependent variations in IL4 production and response to stimulation with PMA/Ca may reflect differences in naive and memory T cell populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Kemp
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001483:Base Sequence; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000097:blood; D007700:Kinetics; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000378:metabolism*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010949:Plasma / Q000502:physiology; D013755:Tetradecanoylphorbol Acetate / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D015847:Interleukin-4; D013755:Tetradecanoylphorbol Acetate