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J. Exp. Med.,
Volume 188, Number 6, September 21, 1998 1039-1046
By


From the * Department of Microbiology-Immunology and Interleukin (IL)-4, a crucial modulator of the immune system and an active antitumor agent, is
also a potent inhibitor of angiogenesis. When incorporated at concentrations of 10 ng/ml or
more into pellets implanted into the rat cornea or when delivered systemically to the mouse by
intraperitoneal injection, IL-4 blocked the induction of corneal neovascularization by basic fibroblast growth factor. IL-4 as well as IL-13 inhibited the migration of cultured bovine or human microvascular cells, showing unusual dose-response curves that were sharply stimulatory
at a concentration of 0.01 ng/ml but inhibitory over a wide range of higher concentrations. Recombinant cytokine from mouse and from human worked equally well in vitro on bovine
and human endothelial cells and in vivo in the rat, showing no species specificity. IL-4 was secreted at inhibitory levels by activated murine T helper (TH0) cells and by a line of carcinoma cells
whose tumorigenicity is known to be inhibited by IL-4. Its ability to cause media conditioned by
these cells to be antiangiogenic suggested that the antiangiogenic activity of IL-4 may play a
role in normal physiology and contribute significantly to its demonstrated antitumor activity.
Department of Medicine and R.H. Lurie
Cancer Center, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois 60611; and § Millennium
Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
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