title: Transgenic modeling of interleukin-13 in the lung.
abstract: Interleukin (IL)-13 is a key cytokine in asthma pathogenesis. We used constitutive and inducible overexpression transgenic mice to characterize the mechanisms by which IL-13 causes phenotypic alterations in the lung. These studies demonstrated that chemokine receptor-2, transforming growth factor-beta(1), and IL-11 play an important role in the regulation of inflammation and remodeling in the IL-13-treated lung. The study results also demonstrated that IL-13 induces vascular endothelial growth factor, which causes bronchial circulation neovascularization in the murine airway. Last, it was demonstrated that IL-13 induces adenosine accumulation and that adenosine in turn stimulates IL-13 elaboration. These approaches validated in vivo genetic targets against which therapies can be directed to selectively regulate aspects of the IL-13 phenotype.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520-8057, USA.
authors.forename: Jack A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Elias
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Chun Geun
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Homer
authors.forename: Qingsheng
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Blackburn
authors.forename: Zhou
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001249:Asthma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D018793:Interleukin-13 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D008168:Lung / Q000503:physiopathology*; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D019076:Transgenes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D018793:Interleukin-13