Interleukin-4 is essential for the control of microfilariae in murine infection with the filaria Litomosoides sigmodontis.

Litomosoides sigmodontis is the only filaria which develops from infective larvae into microfilaria-producing adults in immunocompetent laboratory mice. In this study we report that interleukin-4 knockout (IL-4 KO) mice have an up to 100-fold-higher and a significantly prolonged microfilaremia compared to wild-type BALB/c mice, as well as 20 times more microfilariae in the thoracic cavity, the site of infection. While worm development and adult worm persistence were equivalent in IL-4 KO and wild-type mice, the fertility and length of adult female worms in IL-4 KO mice was clearly enhanced. The high susceptibility to microfilariae in IL-4 KO mice required the presence of adult worms in a full infection cycle since microfilariae loads did not differ much between IL-4 KO and wild-type mice when purified microfilariae were injected into mice. In addition, we found that eosinophilia was diminished and immunoglobulin E (IgE) was absent in IL-4 KO mice. IgE, however, does not seem to be the essential factor for microfilarial containment since microfilaremia was not elevated in B-cell KO mice. In conclusion, IL-4 is shown for the first time to be essential for the control of microfilarial loads but not of adult worm loads in a fully permissive murine filarial infection. IL-4 dependent effector pathways seem to operate on adult worms rather than directly on microfilariae.