Aiping M Zhao

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Dependence of IL-4, IL-13, and nematode-induced alterations in murine small intestinal smooth muscle contractility on Stat6 and enteric nerves.

Aiping Zhao; Joseph McDermott; Joseph F Urban; William Gause; Kathleen B Madden; Karla Au Yeung; Suzanne C Morris; Fred D Finkelman; Terez Shea-Donohue (Profiled Authors: Terez Shea-Donohue; Aiping M Zhao)

Nutritional Requirements and Functions Laboratory, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA.
Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) 2003;171(2):948-54.

IL-4 and IL-13 promote gastrointestinal worm expulsion in part through effects on nonlymphoid cells, such as intestinal smooth muscle cells. The roles of Stat6 in IL-4-, IL-13-, and parasitic nematode-induced effects on small intestinal smooth muscle contractility were investigated in BALB/c wild-type and Stat6-deficient mice treated with a long-lasting formulation of recombinant mouse IL-4 (IL-4C) or IL-13 for 7 days. Separate groups of BALB/c mice were infected with Nippostrongylus brasiliensis or were drug-cured of an initial Heligmosomoides polygyrus infection and later reinfected. Infected mice were studied 9 and 12 days after inoculation, respectively. Segments of jejunum were suspended in an organ bath, and responses to nerve stimulation and to acetylcholine and substance P in the presence and absence of tetradotoxin, a neurotoxin, were determined. Both IL-4 and IL-13 increased smooth muscle responses to nerve stimulation in wild-type mice, but the effects were greater in IL-13-treated mice and were absent in IL-13-treated Stat6-deficient mice. Similarly, hypercontractile responses to nerve stimulation in H. polygyrus- and N. brasiliensis-infected mice were dependent in part on Stat6. IL-13, H. polygyrus, and N. brasiliensis, but not IL-4, also increased contractility to acetylcholine by mechanisms that involved Stat6 and enteric nerves. These studies demonstrate that both IL-4 and IL-13 promote intestinal smooth muscle contractility, but by different mechanisms. Differences in these effects correlate with differences in the relative importance of these cytokines in the expulsion of enteric nematode parasites.

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