Ulcerative colitis (UC) is characterized by a relapsing and remitting pattern. The remission phase may last weeks to years. It remains unclear what specific factors can cause the disease to exist the remission phase and enter an activated state. IL-10 is a cytokine best known for its anti-inflammatory roles. We hypothesized that IL-10 might have a role in suppressing disease flares in UC remission patients. Unexpectedly, we found that UC remission patients with higher serum IL-10 levels presented faster progression to disease flares. Subsequently, we found that exogenous IL-10 could significantly reduce the level of CD4 and CD8 T cell proliferation. On the other hand, IL-10 significantly elevated the viability of activated CD4 and CD8 T cells. Interestingly, it appeared that the IL-10-mediated pro-survival effects were more pronounced in CD8 T cells than in CD4 T cells and were able to promote the survival of activated T cells when administered prior to cell activation. To examine whether IL-10 in the serum of UC patients was able to enhance T cell survival, we separated UC remission patients into Low, Intermediate, and High groups based on the serum IL-10 level. The native serum from High IL-10 patients, but not the native serum from Low IL-10 patients, could significantly increase the viability of activated T cells. In conclusion, we demonstrated that high IL-10 level at the remission phase was associated with shorter duration of remission, possibly due to IL-10-mediated effects on T cell survival.

中文翻译：

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IL-10可提高T细胞存活率，并与非活动性溃疡性结肠炎患者的更快复发相关。

溃疡性结肠炎（UC）的特征是复发和缓解。缓解阶段可能持续数周至数年。尚不清楚哪些特定因素可导致疾病进入缓解期并进入激活状态。IL-10是最著名的细胞因子，具有抗炎作用。我们假设IL-10可能在UC缓解患者中抑制疾病发作。出乎意料的是，我们发现血清IL-10水平较高的UC缓解患者出现疾病发作的速度更快。随后，我们发现外源性IL-10可以显着降低CD4和CD8 T细胞增殖的水平。另一方面，IL-10显着提高了活化的CD4和CD8 T细胞的活力。有趣的是 似乎IL-10介导的促存活作用在CD8 T细胞中比在CD4 T细胞中更明显，并且在细胞活化之前施用时能够促进活化的T细胞的存活。为了检查UC患者血清中的IL-10是否能够提高T细胞存活率，我们根据血清IL-10水平将UC缓解患者分为低，中和高组。来自高IL-10患者的天然血清，而不是来自低IL-10患者的天然血清，可以显着提高活化T细胞的活力。总之，我们证明了缓解期的高IL-10水平与缓解期较短​​有关，这可能是由于IL-10介导的对T细胞存活的影响。