IL-6 controls Th17 immunity in vivo by inhibiting the conversion of conventional T cells into Foxp3+regulatory T cells

The conditions leading to the induction of adaptive Foxp3+regulatory T cells (T-regs) from peripheral T cells in vivo are incompletely understood. Here, we show that unresponsiveness of T cells to IL-6 by T cell-selective deletion of gp130 or immunization of wild-type mice with antigen in incomplete Freund's adjuvant (IFA), which fails to induce IL-6, promotes the conversion of peripheral CD4+T cells into adaptive Foxp3+T-regs. Thus, both T cell-conditional gp130 knockout (KO) mice immunized with MOG35-55 in complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) and wild-type mice immunized with MOG35-55 in IFA develop overwhelming antigen-specific T-reg responses and are protected from experimental autoimmune e…