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T cells

IL-9 breaks down barriers

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 14, page 432 (2014)Cite this article

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Analysis of the intestinal mucosa from patients with inflammatory bowel disease and control individuals indicated that IL-9 was most highly expressed in the mucosa of patients with active ulcerative colitis. These patients also had high numbers of mucosal T cells that expressed PU.1 and many intestinal epithelial cells that expressed IL-9 receptor (IL-9R).

The association of increased expression of IL-9 and IL-9R with disease was also observed in a mouse model of colitis induced by the hapten oxazolone, which is characterized by ulceration and caused by activated T cells. Using reporter mice, the main source of increased IL-9 expression in mice with oxazolone-induced colitis was shown to be mucosal CD4+ T cells. A functional role for these TH9 cells was supported by the findings that IL-9-deficient mice and mice with a T cell-specific PU.1 deficiency developed less severe oxazolone-induced colitis than control mice.

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References

  1. Gerlach, K. et al. TH9 cells that express the transcription factor PU.1 drive T cell-mediated colitis via IL-9 receptor signaling in intestinal epithelial cells. Nature Immunol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ni.2920 (2014)

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  1. Lucy Bird
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Bird, L. IL-9 breaks down barriers. Nat Rev Immunol 14, 432 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri3709

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