Milich D R, Wolf S F, Hughes J L, Jones J E
Department of Molecular Biology, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1995 Jul 18;92(15):6847-51. doi: 10.1073/pnas.92.15.6847.
Helper T (Th) cells are classified as Th1 or Th2 cells by virtue of cytokine secretion and function as mediators of cellular or humoral immunity, respectively. Cytokines also regulate the differentiation of Th cells. For example, interleukin (IL)-12 promotes Th1 and suppresses Th2 cell development, suggesting that IL-12 may be useful therapeutically in Th2-mediated autoimmune and allergic disorders. Therefore, the effect of systemic IL-12 treatment on in vivo autoantibody synthesis in hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-expressing transgenic mice, which is dependent on self-reactive Th2 cells, was examined. Low-dose IL-12 significantly inhibited autoantibody production by shifting the Th2-mediated response toward Th1 predominance. Additionally, previous studies suggest that a predominance of HBeAg-specific Th2-type cells may contribute to chronicity in hepatitis B virus infection. Therefore, IL-12 may also prove beneficial in modulating the HBeAg-specific Th response to favor viral clearance in chronic hepatitis B virus infection.
辅助性T（Th）细胞根据细胞因子的分泌情况分为Th1或Th2细胞，分别作为细胞免疫或体液免疫的介质发挥作用。细胞因子还调节Th细胞的分化。例如，白细胞介素（IL）-12促进Th1细胞分化并抑制Th2细胞发育，这表明IL-12在治疗Th2介导的自身免疫性疾病和过敏性疾病中可能有用。因此，研究了全身性IL-12治疗对表达乙肝e抗原（HBeAg）的转基因小鼠体内自身抗体合成的影响，这类小鼠的自身抗体合成依赖于自身反应性Th2细胞。低剂量IL-12通过将Th2介导的反应转变为以Th1为主导，显著抑制了自身抗体的产生。此外，先前的研究表明，HBeAg特异性Th2型细胞占优势可能导致乙肝病毒感染的慢性化。因此，IL-12在调节HBeAg特异性Th反应以促进慢性乙肝病毒感染中的病毒清除方面可能也被证明是有益的。
