Increased IL-13-producing T cells in ALS: positive correlations with disease severity and progression rate.

We measured the intracellular productions of IFNgamma, IL-2, IL-4, IL-13 and TNFalpha in peripheral blood CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells from 21 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients, 14 disease controls (DC) with spinocerebellar degeneration and 16 healthy controls (HC). Only the percentages of CD4(+)IL-13(+) and CD8(+)IL-13(+) T cells were significantly higher in ALS patients than in DC and HC. The CD4(+)IL-13(+) T cell percentages showed a significant negative correlation with the revised ALS functional rating scale scores and significant positive correlation with the disease progression rate, suggesting that IL-13 contributes to ALS.