Interleukin-27-Mediated Suppression of Human Th17 Cells Is Associated with Activation of STAT1 and Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling Protein 1

Abstract

Accumulating evidence indicates that interleukin (IL)-27, a member of the IL-12 family of cytokines, antagonizes pathological Th17 effector cell responses. Relatively little is known about the cytokines that regulate human Th17 cells. In this study, we investigated the effect of IL-27 on the differentiation of human Th17 cells and on committed memory Th17 cells. We demonstrate that IL-27 suppresses the development of human Th17 cells by downregulating retinoid orphan nuclear receptor C expression and that this inhibition is associated with the induction of the intracellular signaling factors STAT1 and induction of the suppressor of cytokine signaling protein 1. The IL-27-mediated inhibition of IL-17 is independent of IL-10. We show that IL-27 inhibits differentiation of naïve T cells into IL-17(+) T cells under different Th17 polarizing conditions. IL-27 suppresses other Th17 subset cytokines such as IL-22 and IL-21 but not tumor necrosis factor-α. Moreover, we also show that IL-27 inhibits IL-17 production by committed Th17 memory cells, which is independent of IL-10. These studies show that IL-27 negatively regulates both the developing and committed human Th17 responses and therefore may be a promising therapeutic approach in the treatment of Th17-mediated diseases.