IL-11 acts as an alarmin-like pro-inflammatory mediator regulating mucosal responses during helminth infection.

ABSTRACT: Lung-trafficking helminth larvae drive an early pulmonary neutrophilic inflammation prior to the establishment of the hallmark Type 2 immune response. While IL-11 is known to play crucial roles in chronic inflammatory responses, its role in the mucosal immunity to helminth parasites has not been assessed to date. In a mouse model for Ascaris infection, we observed elevated IL-11 levels in lung tissue that strikingly correlated with parasite burden. Single-cell molecular and phenotypic analyses, combined with confocal and RNAscope spatial imaging, identified lung epithelial cells and peribronchial stromal cells, including myofibroblasts and smooth muscle cells, as important sources of IL-11 in naïve and Ascaris-infected lungs. In the absence of IL-11 signaling, using IL-11Rα1-deficient mice

SUBMITTER: Gazzinelli-Guimaraes PH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12917958 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature