Department of Food Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada.
J Agric Food Chem. 2011 Dec 28;59(24):13195-202. doi: 10.1021/jf202963r. Epub 2011 Nov 22.
Oral immunotherapy (OIT) is a promising therapeutic approach for treating food allergy. The treatment with heated ovomucoid-depleted egg white (HOMEW) in egg-allergic patients is noteworthy; however, OIT protocols are still experimental, and a better knowledge of the underlying mechanism is required. The objective of this work was to investigate the immunomodulatory effects of HOMEW and characterize the underlying mechanism in a BALB/c mouse model of egg allergy. Mice were sensitized with EW and treated with HOMEW. Post treatment, mice were challenged with EW and euthanized for collecting blood and spleen. Markers of allergic clinical outcomes were measured as histamine concentration, serum antibody activity, and cytokine production from cultured splenocytes. Digestibility of HOMEW was assessed mimicking physiological conditions in vitro. The HOMEW demonstrated high digestibility. The treatment induced a marked increase of the Th1/Th2 ratio in the high-dose treatment group. Treated mice had significantly less histamine, EW-specific IgE, and IL-4 and more IFN-γ and IL-10. This study confirms the mechanisms involved in successful tolerance induction with OIT using HOMEW and allows understanding of the vital role of surrogate allergy markers involved in immune modulation.
口服免疫疗法（OIT）是治疗食物过敏的一种很有前途的治疗方法。用加热的卵白蛋白-depleted 蛋清（HOMEW）治疗鸡蛋过敏患者值得注意；然而，OIT 方案仍处于实验阶段，需要更好地了解其潜在机制。本研究的目的是研究 HOMEW 的免疫调节作用，并在鸡蛋过敏的 BALB/c 小鼠模型中表征其潜在机制。用 EW 对小鼠进行致敏，并使用 HOMEW 进行治疗。治疗后，用 EW 对小鼠进行攻毒，并对其进行安乐死以收集血液和脾脏。通过测量培养的脾细胞中组胺浓度、血清抗体活性和细胞因子产生来评估过敏临床结局的标志物。根据体外生理条件评估 HOMEW 的消化率。结果表明，HOMEW 具有较高的消化率。该治疗方法在高剂量治疗组中诱导 Th1/Th2 比值显著增加。治疗组的小鼠组胺、EW 特异性 IgE 和 IL-4 显著减少，IFN-γ 和 IL-10 显著增加。这项研究证实了使用 HOMEW 进行 OIT 诱导成功耐受所涉及的机制，并使我们了解了参与免疫调节的替代过敏标志物的重要作用。
