Allergic diseases are often triggered by environmental allergens that induce dominant

Allergic diseases are often triggered by environmental allergens that induce dominant type2 immune responses, characterized by the infiltrated TH2 lymphocytes, eosinophils, and elevated TH2 cytokines. cytokine, that can strongly activate DCs, provide important evidences that the epithelial barrier can trigger allergic diseases by regulating immune responses. The finding that OX40/OX40L interactions are the molecular trigger responsible for the induction and maintenance of TH2 responses by TSLP-activated DCs provides a plausible molecular explanation for TSLP-mediated allergy. Recent progresses in characterizing the proinflammatory IL-17 cytokine family have added an additional layer SB 202190 of complexity on the regulation of allergic inflammation. TSLP-DCs can induce a robust expansion of TH2 memory cells and strengthen SB 202190 functional attributes by upregulating their surface expression of IL-17RB (IL-25R), the receptor for cytokine IL-17E (IL-25), a distinct member of IL-17 cytokine family. IL-17E (also know as IL-25) produced by epithelial cells, and other innate cells, such as eosinphils, basophils, and mast cells, are shown to regulate adaptive immunity by enhancing TH2 cytokine productions. These exciting findings expand our knowledge of the complex immunological cascades that result in allergic inflammation and may provide novel therapeutic approaches for the treatments of allergic diseases. Introduction Allergic responses induced by dysregulated type-2 immune response to environmental allergens often cause harmful symptoms such as asthma and atopy. The epithelial barrier in the local mucosal surface such as airway, skin, and gastrointestinal has long been hypothesized to play important roles in the initiation of allergic response by secreting various chemokines, cytokines and growth factors, which in turns regulate innate immune cells. The idea that the epithelial barrier and altered innate immunity are fundamental to the onset of allergic diseases is SB 202190 supported by the findings that thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) represent a key molecule at the epithelial cell-dendritic cell (DC) interface to initiate allergic inflammation. Upon exposure to allergens or virus infections, proinflammatory cytokines, such SB 202190 as TNF-; and IL-1, trigger strong TSLP production by human airway epithelial cells and human keratinocytes. In turn, TSLP endows DCs to induce the differentiation of inflammatory TH2 cells and the expansion and activation of allergen specific TH2 memory cells. In addition, understanding the maintenance and regulation of long-lived allergen-specific human TH2 memory cells and their molecular signatures may provide novel therapeutic approaches for the treatments of allergic diseases. Recent advances demonstrate that cytokines TSLP and IL-25, as well as OX40L/OX40, a member of tumor-necrosis factor (TNF)/TNF receptor superfamily seem to be important contributors in the maintenance of TH2 memory pool during the pathogenesis of allergic inflammation. In this review, we discuss how these three factors contribute to the onset and maintenance of allergic response by regulating innate and adaptive immunity. TSLP and TSLPR TSLP, a distant paralog of IL-7, is a type I cytokine that is part of the IL-2 cytokine family (IL-2, IL-4, IL-7, IL-9, IL-13, IL-15, IL-21, and TSLP) [1]. Murine TSLP was first identified as a factor expressed in the supernatants of thymic stromal cell line that could support the development of B cells [2]. The activities of mouse TSLP overlap with those of IL-7, which can stimulate the Rabbit Polyclonal to MARK4. proliferation of thymocytes and facilitate B lymphopoiesis in cultures of fetal liver and bone marrow lymphocyte precursors. Subsequent characterization and cloning revealed that the activity was a result of four-helix bundle cytokine with three potential sites for N-linked carbohydrate addition and seven cysteine residues [1]. Human orthologue of TSLP was later discovered in a computational screen of genomic database. While human SB 202190 TSLP shares poor homology with that of mouse at only 43% amino acid identity, sequence prediction of human TSLP cDNA revealed a similar four-helix structured cytokine with two using genetic approaches in mice showed that tissue-specific over expression of TSLP in lung and skin triggers allergic response leading to asthma.