MINI REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.

Sec. Cytokines and Soluble Mediators in Immunity

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1642116

This article is part of the Research TopicCytokine Interactions and Biomarker Potential in Various DiseasesView all 3 articles

Dichotomous roles of IL-36 and IL-38 in cardiovascular disease

Provisionally accepted
  • The First People's Hospital of Baiyin, Baiyin, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Members of the interleukin-1 (IL-1) superfamily play crucial roles in orchestrating inflammation and immune responses. Among them, IL-36 and IL-38 have emerged as cytokines with contrasting roles in cardiovascular disease (CVD). IL-36 typically promotes inflammation, contributing to endothelial dysfunction, atherogenesis, and myocardial injury. In contrast, IL-38 exerts predominantly anti-inflammatory effects, modulating immune responses and promoting tissue repair. This mini-review provides a critical synthesis of current findings on IL-36 and IL-38 in the context of atherosclerosis, myocardial ischaemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury, and post-percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) outcomes. We discuss their molecular mechanisms, potential as biomarkers, and therapeutic implications, while identifying key gaps in knowledge that merit further investigation.

Keywords: IL-36, IL-38, cardiovascular disease, biomarker, anthogenesis

Received: 06 Jun 2025; Accepted: 23 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Huang and Bao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Shisan (Bob) Bao, The First People's Hospital of Baiyin, Baiyin, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.