title: Effects of interleukin (IL)-13 on immediate-early response gene expression, phenotype and differentiation of human mast cells. Comparison with IL-4.
abstract: The recently cloned interleukin 13 (IL-13) shares most investigated biological activities on B lymphocytes and monocytes with IL-4. In this study we investigated the potential role of IL-13 in regulating human mast cell activities. The effects of IL-13 on the expression of an immediate-early response gene (c-fos), proliferation, expression of mast cell-associated cell surface antigen (CD54 and Kit), and in vitro differentiation of human mast cells, were investigated. We compared the effect of IL-13 with that of IL-4. Both IL-13 and IL-4 induced expression of c-fos in cells from the human mast cell line HMC-1. This indicates that mast cells express functional receptors for IL-13. IL-13 and IL-4 decreased the proliferation rate of HMC-1 cells. However, IL-13 was less potent than IL-4. Human mast cells constitutively express the adhesion molecule ICAM-1 (CD54) and the receptor for stem cell factor (Kit) (CD117). The expression of CD54 was increased after treatment with IL-13 or IL-4, whereas the expression of Kit was decreased. Also in this action IL-4 was more potent than IL-13. By culturing mononuclear cells from cord blood in the presence of stem cell factor there is a differentiation of tryptase-positive mast cells in the cultures. This process was inhibited when IL-4 was present. In contrast, IL-13 did not affect the expression of tryptase during differentiation of stem cell factor dependent cord blood-derived mast cells. Taken together, these findings indicate that IL-13 has regulatory effects on human mast cells. The effect overlaps with but is also different from that of IL-4.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nilsson
mesh_terms: D015152:Blotting, Northern; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000276:immunology; D002460:Cell Line; D004261:DNA Replication / Q000276:immunology; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000276:immunology; D017781:Genes, Immediate-Early / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D018793:Interleukin-13 / Q000502:physiology*; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000502:physiology*; D008407:Mast Cells / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D018793:Interleukin-13; D015847:Interleukin-4