I'm not sure if this has been posted yet or not. I know I recently read it and now here it is again in MedPage Today e-newsletter:
Cytokine Halts IBD in Mice
A newly discovered cytokine in the interleukin (IL)-1 family protected against the development of inflammatory bowel disease in transgenic mice, researchers found.
Inflammatory bowel disease occurs when environmental antigens trigger an autoimmune response in colonic tissue of genetically susceptible hosts. It reflects a pro-inflammatory state, and previous efforts to enhance the counterbalancing regulatory arm of the intestinal immune system, such as with systemic administration of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10, have been unsuccessful.
But mice bred to express human IL-37, the new anti-inflammatory cytokine, were protected when given colitis-inducing dextran sulfate sodium, according to Jesus Rivera-Nieves, PhD, of the University of California San Diego, and colleagues.
Unlike wild-type mice, who lost weight and experienced bleeding and changes in stool after dextran administration, the transgenic mice remained stable.
"Perhaps the role of IL-37 in vivo is to assist in detaining the progression from regulated to dysregulated inflammation, therefore limiting tissue damage," the researchers wrote online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.