IL-10 regulates early IL-12-mediated immune responses induced by the radiation-attenuated schistosome vaccine

Radiation-attenuated (RA) schistosomes penetrate the host via the skin where they stimulate intense inflammatory reactions and the release of pro-inflammatory IL-12, important for T(h)1-type immune responses which are partially host protective. However, RA larvae also induce the secretion of regulatory IL-10. We now show that following vaccination of IL-12p40(-/-) mice, abundant IL-10 was produced by in vitro cultured skin biopsies between days 4 and 14, corresponding to the down-regulation of MHC II expression by cells in the dermis and cells that emigrate from the skin. In IL-10(-/-) mice, inflammation of the vaccination site was increased with larger numbers of IL-12p40(+), MHC II+ and CD86(+) cells in the dermal exudate, and was associated with elevated levels of skin-derived IL-12p40 and IL-1beta. These changes in IL-10(-/-) mice were also reflected by an increased number of cells in the skin-draining lymph nodes (sdLN) and greater levels of lymphocyte proliferation. Moreover, such mice had increased numbers of CD4(+) sdLN cells that were CD25(+), CD28(+) or CD152(+) and accessory cells that were CD40(+) or MHC II+. Finally, the secretion of IFN-gamma (and IL-12p40) by in vitro cultured sdLN cells was substantially raised in IL-10(-/-) mice, but much reduced in IL-12p40(-/-) mice, resulting in the development of highly polarized T(h)1 and T(h)2 cytokine profiles in the two groups of mice respectively. We conclude that IL-10 has an important role early in the regulation of IL-12-mediated priming of acquired immune responses, and effectively contains excessive dermal inflammation and prevents the development of highly polarized T(h)1-type responses.