Cytokines helminth-induced

Finkelman, F.D., Pearce, E.J., Urban, J.F. and Sher, A. (1992) Regulation and biological function of helminth-induced cytokine responses. Immunoparasitology Today, A62-A66. 

Subramanian, G., Kazura, J.W., Pearlman, E., Jia, X., Malhorta, I. and King, C.L. (1997) B7-2 requirement for helminth induced granuloma formation and CD4 type 2 T helper cell cytokine expression. Journal of Immunology 158, 5914-5920. 

However, this seemingly strong association between human and rat eosinophils and IgE-mediated diseases has been unclear in mice. For example, analyses of the effects of antibodies to IL-5 on helminth-induced eosinophilia have shown that anti-IL-5 suppresses blood eosinophilia and eosinophil infiltration into the tissues of parasitized animals. However, ablation of eosinophilia by anti-IL-5 was not associated with a diminution of resistance in mice infected with S. mansoni (26) or with Trichinella spiralis (27). These findings suggest that eosinophils are not involved in the expression of immunity to these parasites, at least in these mouse models. In contrast, mice infected with Trichuris muris showed the exactly opposite findings. In this infection, the resistance to infection was associated with the production of Th2 cytokines, such as IL-4 and IL-5, tissue eosinophilia, and intestinal IgA production (28). Furthermore, in murine asthma models, the experiments using anti-IL-5 showed that neither IL-5 nor eosinophils were required for airway hyperresponsiveness in BALB/c mice sensitized and challenged with... 

The host immune response to helminths is partially controlled by cytokines as immune cell signalii molecules, and chemokines to induce cell-specific chemotaxis, in order to ehcit the appropriate antihelminthic response. Prolonged co-existence of helminths and their hosts have resulted in parasite developing homologues to human cytokines and chemokines that manipulates the host immune response in such a way as to prolong parasite infestation. Examples of helminth cytokine and chemokine homologues are shown in Table 6 and described herein. 

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