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Recombinant human IL-37 (rhIL-37) is an inhibitor of inflammation.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>ELISA assay was performed to detect the concentration of cytokines. Flow cytometry was used to analyze cell proportion. Besides, qRT-PCR and western blotting assay were used to detect the level of gene and protein, respectively. Transwell co-culture system was used for the co-culture of dendritic cells (DCs) and CD4<jats:sup>+<\/jats:sup>T cells.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Our data showed that rhIL-37 inhibited the development of ectopic lesions in the mice with endometriosis, increased Th1\/Th2 ratio and induced DCs maturation. The co-culture system of DCs and CD4<jats:sup>+<\/jats:sup>T cells demonstrated that rhIL-37 increased Th1\/Th2 cell ratio through promoting DCs maturation. Moreover, the expression of IL-4 in the DCs derived from healthy mice was inhibited by rhIL-37 treatment. rhIL-37 increased Th1\/Th2 cell ratio through inhibiting IL-4 in DCs. Subsequently, our results proved that rhIL-37 promoted the maturation of DCs via inhibiting phosphorylation of STAT3. Activation of STAT3 could reverse rhIL-37-induced maturation of DCs.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Overall, rhIL-37 could protect against endometriosis through increasing the ratio of Th1\/Th2 cells via inducing DCs maturation and inhibiting IL-4 expression in the DCs. Furthermore, rhIL-37 induced DCs maturation by inhibiting STAT3 phosphorylation. Our data confirmed the protective effect of rhIL-37 in endometriosis. These data may provide a novel idea for the treatment of the disease.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Graphical abstract<\/jats:title>\n                \n              <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s12958-021-00811-3","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,24]],"date-time":"2021-08-24T07:02:54Z","timestamp":1629788574000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":28,"title":["Recombinant human IL-37 inhibited endometriosis development in a mouse model through increasing Th1\/Th2 ratio by inducing the maturation of dendritic cells"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Lijie","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhouzhou","family":"Liao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mingzhu","family":"Ye","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6309-6877","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jianfa","family":"Jiang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,24]]},"reference":[{"issue":"5","key":"811_CR1","first-page":"447","volume":"69","author":"A Czyzyk","year":"2017","unstructured":"Czyzyk A, Podfigurna A, Szeliga A, Meczekalski B. 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