Description
Interleukin-10 is a pleiotropic cytokine playing an important role as a regulator of lymphoid and myeloid cell function. Due to the ability of IL-10 to block cytokine synthesis and several accessory cell functions of macrophages, T-cells and NK cells. In addition, IL-10 participates in regulating proliferation and differentiation of B-cells, mast cells and thymocytes. The murine IL-10 exhibits strong DNA and aminoacid sequence homology to the human IL-10 and an open reading frame in the Epstein-Barr virus genome, BCRF1 which shares many of the cellular cytokine's biological activities and may therefore play a role in the host-virus interaction