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

We measured the intracellular productions of IFNγ, IL-2, IL-4, IL-13 and TNFα 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.