The IL-10(GFP) (VeRT-X) mouse strain is not suitable for the detection of IL-10 production by granulocytes during lung inflammation


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Ozkan M., Eskiocak Y. C., Wingender G.

PLOS ONE, vol.16, no.5, 2021 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 16 Issue: 5
  • Publication Date: 2021
  • Doi Number: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247895
  • Journal Name: PLOS ONE
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Agricultural & Environmental Science Database, Animal Behavior Abstracts, Aquatic Science & Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA), BIOSIS, Biotechnology Research Abstracts, Chemical Abstracts Core, EMBASE, Food Science & Technology Abstracts, Index Islamicus, Linguistic Bibliography, MEDLINE, Pollution Abstracts, Psycinfo, zbMATH, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Open Archive Collection: AVESIS Open Access Collection
  • Dokuz Eylül University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

The clear and unequivocal identification of immune effector functions is essential to understand immune responses. The cytokine IL-10 is a critical immune regulator and was shown, for example, to limit pathology during various lung diseases. However, the clear identification of IL-10-producing cells is challenging and, therefore, reporter mouse lines were developed to facilitate their detection. Several such reporter lines utilize GFP, including the IL-10(GFP) (VeRT-X) reporter strain studied here. In line with previous reports, we found that this IL-10(GFP) line faithfully reports on the IL-10 production of lymphoid cells. However, we show that the IL-10(GFP) reporter is not suitable to analyse IL-10 production of myeloid cells during inflammation. During inflammation, the autofluorescence of myeloid cells increased to an extent that entirely masked the IL-10-specific GFP-signal. Our data illustrate a general and important technical caveat using GFP-reporter lines for the analysis of myeloid cells and suggest that previous reports on effector functions of myeloid cells using such GFP-based reporters might require re-evaluation.