Review

Interleukin 18 in the CNS

Silvia Alboni^1* , Davide Cervia^2* , Shuei Sugama³ and Bruno Conti⁴

¹  Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy

²  Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy

³  Department of Physiology, Nippon Medical School, 1-1-5 Sendagi Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8602, Japan

⁴  Molecular and Integrative Neurosciences Department, The Scripps Research Institute, CA, USA

author email corresponding author email* Contributed equally

Journal of Neuroinflammation 2010, 7:9doi:10.1186/1742-2094-7-9

Published:	29 January 2010

Abstract

Interleukin (IL)-18 is a cytokine isolated as an important modulator of immune responses and subsequently shown to be pleiotropic. IL-18 and its receptors are expressed in the central nervous system (CNS) where they participate in neuroinflammatory/neurodegenerative processes but also influence homeostasis and behavior. Work on IL-18 null mice, the localization of the IL-18 receptor complex in neurons and the neuronal expression of decoy isoforms of the receptor subunits are beginning to reveal the complexity and the significance of the IL-18 system in the CNS. This review summarizes current knowledge on the central role of IL-18 in health and disease.