Nada Abdel Aziz - IUIS Beijing ICI 2019 Presentation

Eighteen members of the Division of Immunology attended the 17th International Congress of Immunology held in Beijing in October. Nada Abdel Aziz was a delegate at the event where she presented on "IL-4Rα is required by Foxp3+ regulatory T cells to control tissue inflammation".

Nada Abdel Aziz - IL-4Rα is required by Foxp3+ regulatory T cells to control tissue inflammation

An important and continuously expanding aspect of cytokine-mediated immune control is the role they exert on immune regulation. Particularly, IL-4 has been suggested to play an important role in determining the fate of Foxp3⁺ Treg cells. By using our mouse model where il-4rα gene is specifically impaired within Foxp3⁺ Treg cells we found that during patristic infection Foxp3^cre IL-4Rα^-/lox mice were less able to control tissue inflammatory responses and effector immune cell functions resulting in aggravated liver fibro-proliferative pathology (S. mansoni) and heavy lung mucus production (N. brasiliensis). The work newly suggests the “need” for IL-4Rα mediated signaling on Foxp3⁺ Tregs to optimally limit tissue inflammation under inflammatory conditions.