Gomes-Santos, Ana CristinaMoreira, Thais GarciasCastro-Junior, Archimedes BarbosaHorta, Bernardo CoelhoLemos, LuisaCruz, Deborah NogueiraGuimarães, Mauro Andrade FreitasCara, Denise CarmonaMcCafferty, Donna-MarieFaria, Ana Maria Caetano2018-09-272018-09-272012-02-01Ana Cristina Gomes-Santos, Thais Garcias Moreira, Archimedes Barbosa Castro-Junior, et al., “New Insights into the Immunological Changes in IL-10-Deficient Mice during the Course of Spontaneous Inflammation in the Gut Mucosa,” Clinical and Developmental Immunology, vol. 2012, Article ID 560817, 13 pages, 2012. doi:10.1155/2012/560817http://hdl.handle.net/1880/10833310.11575/PRISM/44373IL-10 is a regulatory cytokine that plays a major role in the homeostasis of the gut and this is illustrated by the fact that IL-10−/− mice develop spontaneous colitis. In this study, IL-10−/− mice were analyzed for immunological changes during colitis development. We found a reduced frequency of regulatory T cells and higher frequency of activated T cells in the colon that precedes the macroscopic signs of the disease. Production of IL-17 and IFN-γ was higher in the colon. Colitis progression culminates with the reduction of regulatory T cells in the intestine. Frequency of B1 cells and the secretory IgA production were both elevated. Despite these alterations, 16-week-old IL-10−/− mice could be rendered tolerant by a continuous feeding protocol. Our study provides detailed analysis of changes that precede colitis and it also suggests that oral tolerance could be used to design novel alternative therapies for the disease.Journal Article2018-09-27enCopyright © 2012 Ana Cristina Gomes-Santos et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/560817