Production and function of IL-10 in the central nervous system

Our data suggest an important regulatory role for IL-10 within the central nervous system by a) reducing the antigenpresenting capacity of astro- and microglia and thereby lowering or preventing, antigen-specific proliferative T cell responses, and b) inhibition of inflammatory cytokine production by the resident parenchymal cells as well as from infiltrating monocytes/macrophages. In the latter instance the signals triggering cytokine production are crucial since IL-10 interferes with bacterial but not viral or cytokine-induced activation of expression of cytokine genes.