The Immunological Basis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Table 2

Main cytokines of the adaptive immune response, cells that produce them, and the principle actions.

Cytokines	Types of cells	Main functions in IBD
IL-2	T cells	Inducing proliferation of T and B cells and the production of IFN-γ [49]
IL-4	Th2 cells; Mast cells	Promoting the differentiation of Th2 cells; Inhibiting exacerbated responses of Th1 cells [49]
IL-10	Macrophages; Dendritic cells; Treg	Inhibiting exacerbated responses of Th1 cell [49]
IL-17	Th17 cells; Neutrophils	Promoting inflammation by inducing the production of IL-6, IL-1, and TNF-α; Inducing the production of cytokines that increase Th1 response; Inducing chemokine expression, adhesion molecules by epithelial and endothelial cells, fibroblast proliferation, and growth factors expression, such as G-CSF and GM-CSF [68]
TGF-β	T cells; Macrophages; Fibroblasts	Inhibiting Th subtypes, such as Th1, Th2, and Th17 cells [49]; Playing a key role in the differentiation of Th17 and Treg, in balance with some factors, such as IL-6 [26, 27]
IFN-γ	Th1 cells; TCD8^+ cells; NK cells	Activation of macrophages [50]; Inducing the production of IL-12 [57, 58]