| First Author | Zhan T | Year | 2019 |
| Journal | Immunology | Volume | 158 |
| Issue | 4 | Pages | 296-303 |
| PubMed ID | 31436861 | Mgi Jnum | J:281652 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6377293 | Doi | 10.1111/imm.13111 |
| Citation | Zhan T, et al. (2019) Interleukin-9 blockage reduces early hepatic granuloma formation and fibrosis during Schistosoma japonicum infection in mice. Immunology 158(4):296-303 |
| abstractText | Hepatic fibrosis induced by schistosomes is regulated by a complex network of cytokines. T helper type 9 (Th9) cells are a new type of effector T helper cells, which mainly secrete the specific cytokine interleukin-9 (IL-9). Interleukin-9 has been shown to contribute to liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B and in a mouse model due to carbon tetrachloride. However, the role of IL-9 in schistosomiasis fibrosis remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the roles of IL-9 in schistosomiasis through in vivo and in vitro studies. The in vivo studies found that neutralization of IL-9 reduced liver granulomatous inflammation and collagen deposition around parasite eggs. The in vitro studies found that the treatment of primary hepatic stellate cells with IL-9 induced a significant increase of collagen and alpha-smooth-muscle actin. Moreover, we also described the dynamics and relevance of IL-9 and IL-4 in mice infected with Schistosoma japonicum. We found that IL-9 might appear more quickly and at higher levels than IL-4. Hence, our findings indicated that IL-9 might play a role in regulating hepatic fibrosis in early-stage schistosomiasis and become a promising approach for regulating hepatic fibrosis caused by S. japonicum. |
