Suppression of antigen-specific T- and B-cell responses by intranasal or oral administration of recombinant Bet v 1, the major birch pollen allergen, in a murine model of type I allergy☆,☆☆,★
Section snippets
Animals
Female, 7-week-old BALB/c mice were obtained from Charles River (Sulzfeld, Germany). All experiments were approved by the Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee of the University of Vienna and the Ministry of Science and Research.
Antigens
Recombinant Bet v 1 (rBet v 1) was obtained from Biomay GesmbH (Linz, Austria). BP (Allergon AB, Engelholm, Sweden) was used for the preparation of a BP extract. Fifty grams of BP was extracted in 500 mL of PBS by overnight stirring at 4°C. After centrifugation at 4000
Antibody responses in tolerized versus sensitized mice
Allergen-specific antibody levels in serum were measured by ELISA 6 days after the last aerosol exposure. Mice, treated intranasally 3 times with 10 μg of rBet v 1 (group 1) and mice fed 3 times with 100 μg of rBet v 1 (group 2) before sensitization, displayed significantly lower IgG1, IgG2a, and IgE antibody levels to r Bet v 1 than the sensitized control animals (group 3) (P < .01). In parallel, the antibody production of all isotypes against the natural BP preparation was abrogated in both
DISCUSSION
In this study we demonstrate that mucosal (particularly intranasal) administration of recombinant Bet v 1 suppressed both T and B cell–derived immune responses and thus prevented sensitization to the allergen. This was documented by an abrogation of allergen-specific T-cell responses and cytokine production in vitro, reduced antibody production, and negative type I skin test reactions in vivo.
Oral/mucosal tolerance has been postulated as one promising concept to control diseases mediated by
Acknowledgements
We thank Renate Steiner-Göltl for excellent technical assistance and Gabriel O’Ríordaín for review and correction of the manuscript.
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Cited by (0)
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Supported by grants from the Austrian Science Foundation (S06704-MED and S7206-MOB), the European Science Foundation, and ALK (Copenhagen, Denmark). Harald Renz is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Re 737/4-4).
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Reprint requests: Ursula Wiedermann, MD, PhD, Institute of General and Experimental Pathology, University of Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
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