Kang B, Kim K M, Kang C Y
Laboratory of Immunology, College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, Korea.
Immunobiology. 1999 Jun;200(2):264-76. doi: 10.1016/S0171-2985(99)80075-8.
Oral administration of antigen induces an antigen-specific immunologic tolerance and many studies are being carried out to apply this phenomenon to the treatment of autoimmune diseases. In this study, we investigated long-term Th1 and Th2 tolerance in mice given a high dose of orally administered Ovalbumin (OVA). Feeding OVA to BALB/c mice suppressed OVA-specific IgG response and the degree of inhibition was dose-dependent in the range of 2.5-250 mg. Moreover, the state of tolerance established by prior feeding of high dose of OVA was present after 26 weeks. Interestingly, even though both Th subsets were tolerized significantly for a short period, the tolerizing effect was more pronounced and persistent in Th2-mediated immune responses. Thus we speculate that oral administration of a single high dose of OVA induces Th1- and Th2-tolerance by different mechanisms. Our findings could be important in the development of therapeutics for the treatment of autoimmune disease and allergy.
口服抗原可诱导抗原特异性免疫耐受，目前正在开展许多研究以将这一现象应用于自身免疫性疾病的治疗。在本研究中，我们调查了给予高剂量口服卵清蛋白（OVA）的小鼠的长期Th1和Th2耐受情况。给BALB/c小鼠喂食OVA可抑制OVA特异性IgG反应，在2.5 - 250 mg范围内，抑制程度呈剂量依赖性。此外，在预先喂食高剂量OVA 26周后，所建立的耐受状态仍然存在。有趣的是，尽管两个Th亚群在短期内均显著耐受，但Th2介导的免疫反应中的耐受效应更为显著且持久。因此，我们推测单次高剂量口服OVA通过不同机制诱导Th1和Th2耐受。我们的研究结果对于自身免疫性疾病和过敏治疗药物的开发可能具有重要意义。
