allergic asthma is a multifactorial disease, influenced by genetic and environmental factors. recent family-based studies have revealed evidence for linkage of human chromosomes 5q31-33, 12q15-24, 11q13 and 15q23.6 as regions likely to contain genes related to asthma. among the candidate genes in these regions are the genes encoding for human interleukin-4, interleukin-13 and interleukin-16. to...

Interleukin-13 (IL-13) belongs to the IL-4 gene family. Like IL-4, IL-13 induces IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) synthesis with no effect on IL-1beta synthesis. We investigated whether IL-13 induces IL-1Ra synthesis via a pathway similar to IL-4. In human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, IL-13 (1 to 100 ng/mL alone induced IL-1Ra synthesis in a dose-dependent manner. A single amino acid mu...

human  basophils play a key role in allergic diseases such as asthma and in a variety of  immunological disorders.  the  generation  of  il-4  and  il-13  can  be  induced  from basophil  by  ige-mediated   and   non-ige-mediated   mechanisms.  time   and   stimulus- dependent  differences  in  the  regulation  of  these  cytokines  could  have  relevance  to their biological effects. the aim o...

Interleukin-13 (IL-13) is a recently discovered immunoregulatory cytokine. The cellular sources of IL-13 and the regulation of its expression are largely unknown. Here we show that human basophils produce IL-13 in response to IgE-receptor (IgER) crosslinking, IL-3, IL-3 plus C5a, but not C5a alone. Human basophils express IL-13 in a restricted manner since, apart from IL-4, no other cytokines e...