Reviews of Interleukin-37: Functions, Receptors, and Roles in Diseases

Table 5

Anti-inflammatory effects and mechanisms of IL-37 in autoimmune diseases.

Disease	Expression status	Cells	Model	Mechanism	Reference
Inflammatory bowel disease	Colonic mucosa↑; Serum ↓	No	Colitis hIL-37tg mice	↑IL-10 ↓IL-1β ↓TNF-α; ↓T cells ↓DCs	[53–56]
Systemic lupus erythematosus	Serum/PBMC ↑	PBMCs	No	↓TNF-α ↓IL-6 ↓IL-1β	[58, 59]
Rheumatoid arthritis	Synovial tissue/ plasma/PBMC ↑	PBMCs and naive CD4+ T cells	Collagen-induced arthritis mice	↓IL-17 ↓IL-1b ↓ IL-6; ↓Th17 cells	[61–64]
Psoriasis	Psoriatic lesion↑	Keratinocyte cells	K14-VEGF-Tg mice	↓IFN-γ ↓CXCL8; ↓IL-6 ↓S100A7	[68]
Asthma	PBMC/Serum/Induced sputum cells↓	Induced sputum cells	Ovalbumin-induced asthma mice	↓IL-1β ↓IL-6 ↓TNF-α↓IL-17	[70, 71]
Guillain-Barre syndrome	Cerebrospinal fluid/Plasma↑	Cerebrospinal fluid and plasma cells	No	Unknown	[72]
Ankylosing spondylitis	Serum/PBMC↑	PBMCs	No	↓TNF-α ↓IL-6 ↓IL-17 ↓IL-23	[73]
Graves’ disease	Serum/PBMC ↑	PBMCs	No	↓IL-6 ↓IL-17 ↓TNF-α	[74]

PBMC: peripheral blood mononuclear cell. DCs: dendritic cells. ↑: upregulate. ↓: downregulate. Levels of IL-37 in colonic mucosa were increased. Levels of IL-37 in serum were reduced. Expression of IL-37 in both serum and PBMC was increased. Expression of IL-37 in synovial tissue, plasma, and PBMC was elevated. Levels of IL-37 in psoriatic lesion were upregulated. Levels of IL-37 in PBMC, serum, and induced sputum cells were downregulated. Expression of IL-37 in both cerebrospinal fluid and plasma was increased.