title: A sensitive and specific bioassay for the detection of human interleukin-10.
abstract: Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is a novel cytokine that is produced by T cells, macrophages, B cells and keratinocytes. It has been shown to inhibit cytokine production and proliferation by T cells when macrophages are used as accessory or antigen presenting cells. Monokine production by macrophages is effectively downregulated by IL-10 and it can be used as a growth factor by CD4, CD8 and gamma/delta positive T cells as well as mast cells and B cells. It is because of these pleiotropic immunoregulatory effects that the detection of IL-10 in the supernatants of T cells, B cells, macrophages and other cells is important for many scientific questions. Here we describe a simple and sensitive bioassay specific for human IL-10 using the IL-10 dependent growth of the mouse mast cell line D36. Our data show that this assay is not crossreactive with hIL-1 beta, hIL-2, hIL-3, hIL-4, hIL-5, hIL-6, hIL-9, hIL-12, hGM-CSF and hTNF-alpha and that it can be completely blocked by an antibody against human IL-10. The hIL-10 induced growth of the D36 cell line is dependent on the presence of mIL-4. Human IL-10 can be measured in a concentration range from approximately 10 U/ml to 0.05 U/ml. This assay is only of limited use for the measurement of IL-10 in human blood samples since it is inhibited by the presence of human serum.
authors.affiliation: First Department of Medicine, University of Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Schlaak
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schmitt
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hüls
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Meyer zum Büschenfelde
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fleischer
mesh_terms: D001681:Biological Assay / Q000379:methods*; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects; D002460:Cell Line; D004357:Drug Synergism; D006801:Humans; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology / Q000494:pharmacology; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000494:pharmacology; D008407:Mast Cells / Q000187:drug effects*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D016753:Interleukin-10; D015847:Interleukin-4