Interleukin-10: Cytokines in Anti-inflammation and Tolerance

Interleukin (IL)-10 is an immunosuppressive cytokine produced by many cells of the innate and adaptive immune response, including macrophages, dendritic cells, B cells, and T cells. A major role of IL-10 is to act as a feedback regulator of the immune response by inhibiting the production of inflammatory cytokines by innate cells such as macrophages and dendritic cells. Thus, the production of IL-10 in response to microbial flora is required to inhibit the development of colitis and, during infection, to inhibit an over-exuberant immune response that may potentially result in morbidity and mortality to the host. Thus, appropriate levels of IL-10 should be induced to inhibit host damage, but not to the level that they inhibit a protective immune response to a pathogen which could result in chronic infection. Regulation of the immune response by IL-10 has been shown to play a role in control of allergic, inflammatory, and autoimmune diseases, and further knowledge may advance our ability to use antagonists or agonists of IL-10 for immune therapies.