| First Author | King VL | Year | 2002 |
| Journal | J Lipid Res | Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 5 | Pages | 768-71 |
| PubMed ID | 11971948 | Mgi Jnum | J:76258 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:2178917 | Citation | King VL, et al. (2002) Interleukin-4 deficiency promotes gallstone formation. J Lipid Res 43(5):768-71 |
| abstractText | Feeding interleukin-4 (IL-4) deficient C57BL/6 LDL receptor (LDLr)(-)(/-) mice a modified diet to investigate the role of this cytokine in cholesterol metabolism led to an unexpected phenotype. IL-4(-)(/-) --> LDLr(-)(/-) mice had enlarged gallbladders and an increased mortality that was preceded by acute body weight loss. To determine if IL-4 deficiency accounted for these findings, C57BL/6 IL-4(+/+) and IL-4(-)(/-) mice were fed either a normal or modified diet. IL-4 deficiency did not alter bile composition or cause liver toxicity in mice fed a fat-enriched diet. Following 8 weeks of feeding a fat-enriched diet, no gallstones were detected in IL-4(+)(/+) mice, and only 20% had cholesterol crystals. In contrast, IL-4(-)(/-) mice had a 100% incidence of gallstones and cholesterol crystals. IL-4(-)(/-) deficiency also increased serum concentrations of bilirubin following feeding a fat-enriched diet. Therefore, these studies revealed an unexpected finding that IL-4 deficiency predisposes to gallstone formation.-King, V. L., S. J. Szilvassy, and A. Daugherty. Interleukin-4 deficiency promotes gallstone formation. J. Lipid Res. 2002. 43: 768-771. |
