Interleukin-13 activates distinct cellular pathways leading to ductular reaction, steatosis, and fibrosis

Fibroproliferative diseases are driven by dysregulated tissue repair responses and are a major cause of morbidity and mortality because they affect nearly every organ system. Type 2 cytokine responses are critically involved in tissue repair; however, the mechanisms that regulate beneficial regeneration versus pathological fibrosis are not well understood. Here, we have shown that the type 2 effector cytokine interleukin-13 simultaneously, yet independently, directed hepatic fibrosis and the compensatory proliferation of hepatocytes and biliary cells in progressive models of liver disease induced by interleukin-13 overexpression or after infection with Schistosoma mansoni. Using transgenic mice with interleukin-13 signaling genetically disrupted in hepatocytes, cholangiocytes, or resident tissue fibroblasts, we have revealed direct and distinct roles for interleukin-13 in fibrosis, steatosis, cholestasis, and ductular reaction. Together, these studies show that these mechanisms are simultaneously controlled but distinctly regulated by interleukin-13 signaling. Thus, it may be possible to promote interleukin-13-dependent hepatobiliary expansion without generating pathological fibrosis.