Effect of pharmacological agents on the productions of interleukin-10 by the murine D10.G4.1 TH2 cell line in vitro.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the clinical courses of a variety of autoimmune and infectious diseases are influenced by the balance of TH1 and TH2 cell subsets that are generated during the immune response. IL-10 is one of several cytokines which influences the differentiation of TH cell subsets and represents a target for therapeutic intervention. We have evaluated a variety of pharmacological agents for their ability to modulate IL-10 release by the murine D10.G4.1 TH2 cell line when stimulated with concanacavalin-A in the presence of IL-1 alpha. Several were inhibitory, and the concentrations which caused a 50% reduction in IL-10 production were 0.38 microM cyclosporin-A, 0.0073 microM dexamethasone, 0.045 microM prednisolone and 0.31 microM cycloheximide. Methotrexate and pentoxifyline caused a weak but statistically significant reduction in IL-10 production at a concentration of 10 microM (P < or = 0.05), whereas amrinone and azathioprine had no clear effect. The pharmacological agents tested are known to exert multiple effects and were evaluated with a view to their use as reference standards in an ongoing screening programme to identify novel compounds which specifically modulate Il-10 production.