In Pulmonary Paracoccidioidomycosis IL-10 Deficiency Leads to Increased Immunity and Regressive Infection without Enhancing Tissue Pathology

Cellular immunity is the main defense mechanism in paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM), the most important systemic mycosis in Latin America. Th1 immunity and IFN-γ activated macrophages are fundamental to immunoprotection that is antagonized by IL-10, an anti-inflammatory cytokine. Both in human and experimental PCM, several evidences indicate that the suppressive effect of IL-10 causes detrimental effects to infected hosts. Because direct studies have not been performed, this study was aimed to characterize the function of IL-10 in pulmonary PCM. mice.Our work demonstrates for the first time that IL-10 plays a detrimental effect to pulmonary PCM due to its suppressive effect on the innate and adaptive immunity resulting in progressive infection and precocious mortality of infected hosts