Possible Interaction: Progesterone and Interleukin-10

“We report that exposure of maternal T cells to progesterone at physiological doses induced a unique skewing of the cytokine production profile of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, with reductions not only in potentially deleterious IFN‐γ and TNF‐α production but also in IL‐10 and IL‐5.”

“In contrast, co-treatment with progesterone increased the level of IL-10 secreted to the culture medium.”

“In comparison to the explants treated only with LPS, pre-treatment with 0.01–1.0 μM progesterone significantly blunted (73, 56, 56, 75, 25, 48 %) the secretion of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, MIP-1α, IL-10 , respectively.”

“Sex steroids are known to have immunomodulatory functions, and release of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 is stimulated by progesterone in vitro.”

“The striking increase in corticosteroids, estrogen, and progesterone during pregnancy may suppress RA onset or activity through the regulation of production or action of cytokines such as TNF alpha, IL-1, IL-6, IL-12, and IL-10.”

“The results showed that Prog increased the expressions of MHC-II and CD40, stimulatory capacity and intracellular levels of IL-6 and IL-10 , while decreased the expressions of CD54 and IL-12, endocytosis and nuclear level of NF-kappaB P65 of SDCs.”

“Because IL-10 is known to inhibit APC production of IL-12, Th1 development may be also suppressed indirectly by progesterone.”