Okamoto Yoshitaka, Horiguchi Shigetoshi, Yamamoto Heizaburo, Yonekura Syuji, Hanazawa Toyoyuki
Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
Allergol Int. 2009 Jun;58(2):155-62. doi: 10.2332/allergolint.08-RAI-0074. Epub 2009 Mar 25.
Recent observations have suggested significant worldwide increase in the prevalence of allergic rhinitis and cedar pollinosis. In Japan, Japanese cedar (Cryptometria japonica) and Japanese cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) pollens are considered to be the major unique allergens and their extent of dispersal is quite large, travelling more than 100km and thus causing serious pollinosis. Cedar pollinosis is a typical type 1 allergic disease by an adaptive immune response that occurs through the induction of allergen-specific effector T cells from naïve T cells. We examined the number of Japanese cedar pollen specific memory Th cells in the peripheral blood of the patients and found that the cedar pollen specific IL-4-producing Th2 memory cells increased during the pollen season and decreased during the off-season. However, more than 60% of the cedar-specific memory Th2 cells survived up to 8 months after the pollen season. Natural killer T(NKT) cells represent a unique lymphocyte subpopulation and their activity is not restricted to MHC antigens. NKT cells play an important role in innate immunity, however, the participation in development of allergic rhinitis could not be clarified.
最近的观察结果表明，全球范围内过敏性鼻炎和雪松花粉症的患病率显著上升。在日本，日本柳杉（Cryptometria japonica）和日本扁柏（Chamaecyparis obtusa）花粉被认为是主要的独特过敏原，其传播范围相当大，可传播超过100公里，从而导致严重的花粉症。雪松花粉症是一种典型的1型过敏性疾病，通过从幼稚T细胞诱导过敏原特异性效应T细胞而发生适应性免疫反应。我们检测了患者外周血中日本柳杉花粉特异性记忆性Th细胞的数量，发现雪松花粉特异性产生白细胞介素-4的Th2记忆细胞在花粉季节增加，在非花粉季节减少。然而，超过60%的雪松特异性记忆性Th2细胞在花粉季节后存活长达8个月。自然杀伤T（NKT）细胞是一种独特的淋巴细胞亚群，其活性不限于MHC抗原。NKT细胞在先天免疫中起重要作用，然而，其在过敏性鼻炎发病中的参与情况尚不清楚。
