Functions
It has many biological roles, including the stimulation of activated B-cell and T-cell proliferation, and the differentiation B cells into Plasma Cells.
It is a key regulator in humoral and adaptive immunity.
IL-4 induces B-cell class switching to IgE, and up-regulates MHC class II production. It also induces B cell class switching to IgG4.
IL-4 decreases the production of Th1 cells, macrophages, IFN-gamma, and dendritic cell IL-12.
Overproduction of IL-4 is associated with allergies.
Read more about this topic: Interleukin 4
Famous quotes containing the word functions:
“The mind is a finer body, and resumes its functions of feeding, digesting, absorbing, excluding, and generating, in a new and ethereal element. Here, in the brain, is all the process of alimentation repeated, in the acquiring, comparing, digesting, and assimilating of experience. Here again is the mystery of generation repeated.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)