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Spaceflight impairs antigen‐specific tolerance induction in vivo and increases inflammatory cytokines
Author(s) -
Chang Tammy T.,
Spurlock Sandra M.,
Candelario Tara Lynne T.,
Gre S. Marlene,
HughesFulford Millie
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fj.15-275073
Subject(s) - spaceflight , immune system , proinflammatory cytokine , immunology , ovalbumin , adoptive cell transfer , inflammation , antigen , stimulation , biology , medicine , t cell , endocrinology , engineering , aerospace engineering
The health risks of a dysregulated immune response during spaceflight are important to understand as plans emerge for humans to embark on long‐term space travel to Mars. In this first‐of‐its‐kind study, we used adoptive transfer of T‐cell receptor transgenic OT‐II CD4 T cells to track an in vivo antigen‐specific immune response that was induced during the course of spaceflight. Experimental mice destined for spaceflight and mice that remained on the ground received transferred OT‐II cells and cognate peptide stimulation with ovalbumin (OVA) 323‐339 plus the inflammatory adjuvant, monophosphoryl lipid A. Control mice in both flight and ground cohorts received monophosphoryl lipid A alone without additional OVA stimulation. Numbers of OT‐II cells in flight mice treated with OVA were significantly increased by 2‐fold compared with ground mice treated with OVA, suggesting that tolerance induction was impaired by spaceflight. Production of proinflammatory cytokines were significantly increased in flight compared with ground mice, including a 5‐fold increase in IFN‐γ and a 10‐fold increase in IL‐17. This study is the first to show that immune tolerance may be impaired in spaceflight, leading to excessive inflammatory responses.—Chang, T. T., Spurlock, S. M, Candelario, T. L. T., Grenon, S. M., Hughes‐Fulford, M. Spaceflight impairs antigen‐specific tolerance induction in vivo and increases inflammatory cytokines. FASEB J. 29, 4122‐4132 (2015). www.fasebj.org